Meet the Siblings
by Shads42
Summary: Nothing is simple in life. The drivers in the Teku and the Metal Maniacs know that all too well when their lives get turned upside down by Tezla. But when the old man invites a few more newcomers to join the races in the Realms, racers that happen to be related to the drivers, things are really going to start heating up. Sibling rivalry's going to be taken to a whole new level.
1. Meet the Siblings

**Chapter 1: Meet the Siblings**

 **So yeah...sure people were wondering what happened to this great big Acceleracers fanfic and why it was down on this website. Well, that's a long story...but it's going to be put back up on here. You can find the original story on other websites like Wattpad right now.**

 **You'll notice that at the moment _this_ version is different from them slightly because guess what! I'm doing a partial rewrite. What that means is that I'm basically rewriting all the way up to the start of the Metro Realm and a few select parts after that to clean things up quality wise. The main plot won't change but a few unresolved subplots will get taken care of and the like.**

 **Sorry for the confusion everyone, and hopefully this rewritten bit will make up for it.**

 **Disclaimer for the *entire* fic since I'm not typing it 100+ times: I own nothing official**

* * *

My name is Terra Kitano. No, not Taro, Terra. Do I look like a boy to you?

I honestly don't blame you for mistaking me for my famous half-brother. Yes, the rich billionaire that's skied down Mount Everest not once but twice. Honestly, I thought he was blessed with that famous Kitano logic that pretty much stops most Kitanos from doing anything remotely insane. How in the world did he get the crazy idea to ski down the tallest mountain above sea level in the first place, let alone doing it twice?

You wish to know how I could be related to Taro, when he was the only heir to the Kitano fortune? It's quite simple, really. Taro's father had an affair with my mother, and I was the result of that little escapade. I look just like my father, which kills me. Taro does too. It's easy to see that we are siblings, even if we are only half siblings - we have the same black hair, the same warm brown eyes, we even have the same bone structure if you can believe it. How the media hasn't figured out that I'm his kid is a mystery to me. Let's be honest, they can find anything under the sun to write a story about it, but they can't seem to figure out that this girl who got sent to jail who happens to look exactly like Taro's father, isn't his illegitimate child? It's not like they don't know about the affair. No, they practically had a field day with it.

Am I jealous? What sane fool wouldn't be? Taro is rich and famous. He grew up in a nice home with good money, never had to go to bed hungry, and was educated. He never had to grow up on the streets, go to bed hungry, and know what it's like to be frozen to the bone. He had time to be a child - well, as much as a child as one could be living in the Kitano's strict household - while I had to work and neglect my studies. Even now I sometimes have trouble when I read, write, or do math. It's a pain, but I didn't need an education to fix cars. That's all that I was good at, fixing cars. I just had some kind of gift with them, I guess. So yes, I'm jealous of Taro, but do not mistake that for being angry at him. The circumstances of my birth and my early life were not his fault.

Enough about that, however. My father, nor my brother, do not control all aspects of my life. You wish to know about my car, correct? I call itWelded, since that is probably the only reason why it hasn't fallen apart yet. It's crafted out of several scrap cars that I rescued from the melting pit in the scrap yard I work at. It's not easy on the eyes, but it gets the job done, and the paint job will help. I haven't been able to finish yet, but I hope to complete it soon.

* * *

My name is Verity Maddox, and I have the best older brother in the whole wide world! He's named Tork, and he's really nice. He was the one who taught me everything I knew about cars. And when I said everything, I mean everything. We're talking how to fix them, how to build them, how to race in them, the list goes on and on and on! But even though he taught me, once I was old enough to race we became competitors. I couldn't just go easy on him, now, could I?

Well, at least I raced him for a bit. He moved out to California a while ago, probably bordering on three years at this point. He wanted to find some people and form a street racing team, and of course, our sleepy little town just had to be too quiet for races. I mean, people come here to race in Headstone Alley, but they all are based out of town. So he moved, but not before giving me the best gift I could ask for: a real bona-fide car! It was just a plain car, but that makes it even better because that meant I got to paint it! I was so happy! Back Alley's my pride and joy, and I'm pretty good at winning races. Tork better be on his watch the next time I run into him, because I'm going to challenge him to a race, and I don't plan on losing.

Wow, you think that we don't look alike? It's not because I'm a girl or anything, is it? I mean, everyone I meet says that we look alike. We have the same coffee brown skin, the same spiky black hair, the same emerald green eyes, we even both have a lot of natural muscle. One time, one of his old teammates saw me in public and the first thing to come out of his mouth was "Tork, when did you get so short?"

Oh, you're talking about the clothing, not the appearance? Ok, that makes sense. But honestly, what were you expecting? My fashion sense is so much better than his. I mean, why wear some olive green - which is such a hideous color, by the way - pants and a red shirt, when you could wear gray jean shorts and lace up combat boots? It goes well with my muted red tank top I like wearing. My best friend Talia doesn't know how I can stand to wear a tank top all the time, but I don't know what's so strange about it.

Talia's this Latina girl Tork and I pulled out of a blizzard a while back. She likes racing and painting cars almost as much as I do. It's not uncommon for us to fix up old cars and then sell them for some cold hard cash, or for us to have races with each other. We do have a pretty healthy rivalry, since both of us are fierce competitors, but if anyone asks you I am the superior driver.

* * *

Who're you? I'm Aurora, Aurora Wheeler. Yep, that's my name, don't go wearing it out on me! I'm your traditional California girl - sandy blonde hair, blue eyes, a nice tan, kind of ditzy - with a touch of Florida craziness. Not that that's a bad thing by any means, oh no, it's the best thing in the world. I suppose I should make the distinction here and now that when I say crazy, I am not referring to the medical term. No, I'm completely sane, thank you very much. My cousin doesn't believe it, but I am, and there's nothing he can do about it.

So, how am I crazy, you might ask. I've got one word, buddy: pranks. Pranks are the love of my life. Well, pranks, jokes, and annoying my cousin. He's named Vert, but I personally like to call him Greenie. He hates it, but I know that means that he must really enjoy the fact that he has his own special nickname. And besides, his reaction to being called that is always hysterical. Why on earth would I stop enriching both of our lives with such joy?

I guess people could call me annoying, or ditzy, or maybe even naive, but hey, I don't care. Life's a party and I just wanna have fun. And since life should be fun, I make it fun! My constant chatter, infectious laughter, and tendency to tease my cousin are always on full blast; even when I race. That's one thing I like doing more than I like joking around - racing. I pride myself on racing anytime, anywhere, and with anything! Jet boats, Jet Skis, ATVs, cars, bikes, dirt bikes, motorcycles, roller blades, skates, on foot, the list goes on and on and on. Maybe you could say that I'm addicted to racing. I prefer to say that I have found my calling.

Hm? What's that?You want to know what's my favorite thing to race with?Well that's easy, it's got to be my car. I call it RoadRage, since whenever I seem to race with it my opponents always seem to get it. It is, for lack of a better word, epic. Greenie doesn't know about Road Rage yet, but I can't wait to track him down and show it to him. I'm not so sure how happy he'll be to see me, though, but that's just a minor detail.

* * *

Talia Pasero's the name. Disregard anything Verity tells you. I am a much better racer than she could ever dream of being.

...What? Nolo and Tone Pasero? Feh, I could care less about them. Oh, don't give me that look. Yes I know they are my two older brothers. So what? I'm glad Tone's dead, and for all I care Nolo can go crawl under a rock and die. I'd be much happier if he did. I mean, they abandoned both me and my mother right after our father died - made up some lame excuse about moving out so that way they wouldn't be a burden. Tone just wanted to escape because he didn't give a...what? Fine, ugh, if you ask me, curses are the only thing Tone and Nolo are worth anymore.

As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, neither of the boys who were supposed to be my brothers cared - is that better? I am at least allowed to say that they didn't care, right, or does that offend you in some way shape or form? - enough to stick around with mom and I. And their leaving caused my already grief-stricken mother to just fall pretty deep into depression. Next thing I knew, she kicked me out, and then I was homeless. It's all their fault, Nolo and Tone's both! Their actions almost caused me to die! If they hadn't left, mom wouldn't have kicked me out, and if I hadn't been kicked out I wouldn't have gotten beaten up, and then I wouldn't have broken my leg which meant that I would have made it to shelter before that infernal blizzard whipped up and almost succeeded in turning me into a human popsicle.

I suppose the one good thing that came out of that whole ordeal was that I met Verity and Tork. They were the ones that pulled me out of the blizzard before I could freeze to death, and Verity and I hit it off pretty much instantly. I owe them my life - the two of them somehow even managed to convince their parents to let me live with them until my mother managed to snap out of her funk, get the help that she needed, and invited me back into my own home. The two of them are more of a family than my own. Nolo and Tone never came back to visit or apologize, not even when I was run over by a drunk guy driving an eighteen wheeler a few years back. I suppose that could just be the amnesia talking, but given how cruel my brothers were in abandoning us, I doubt it.

You want to know why my car looks like Tone'sthen, if I hate him so much? I found the plans in his room when I was throwing away a bunch of his old school papers he conveniently left he was going to build it for me when I turned twenty, something like that. Normally I would have just chucked them right then and there, but car plans are car plans, and I made enough changes so that my design is superior to his. Besides, as good as I am with making drawings, car plans aren't really my forte. I'd have been a fool to throw them out.

* * *

Yo, what's up? I'm Gale Takamoto, a Japanese American girl of sixteen years, and I love electronic music. Techno's okay, glitch hop isn't too bad, but I'm telling you man, trance and progressive house is the way to go. I mean, I love most music in general. Not all music - hard rock and rap, I'm looking at you - but I really love electronic music. Did I mention that I love music?

Aw dude, you can't seriously want me to turn my tunes down, right? I had to have misheard you or something. What? How can I listen to music this loud. Man, I think the better question here is how can you not? Oh, don't give me all that nonsense about permanent hearing damage, I'll be fine. I have this older brother named Shirako, who, like me, is a music junkie. He's been listening to music since before I was born, and despite the volume he can hear things just fine. It's scary, really, he'll have his music up full blast, but if you so much dare to think about swiping some of his Halloween candy he'll hear you. I guess superhuman eardrums run in the family.

I wonder how Shirako's doing. Our parents went through a bitter divorce, and when the dust settled mom got me and dad got my brother. Dad instantly packed everything up and moved Shirako out west, just to spite my mom. It hurt me a lot, since I was really little when it happened - I was only six - so when I got older I had some snippets of memories of times spent with my father and brother, but I couldn't remember what had happened to them. Mom told me that they had died shortly after the custody case was finalized, but she lied to me.

Nothing is more heartbreaking than reading letters your older brother and your father wrote you - letters that your mother's been hiding from you - almost ten years ago, telling you how much they love you and how much they miss you. It was just so agonizing. I haven't seen them since, though they were very relieved, and angry when I finally got to answer them back and explain what had happened.

I've changed from the wide-eyed six year old they knew. I'm taller now, my hair has grown out, and I've stopped wearing it in pigtails. I have the same hair color as Shirako, but unlike him I have dad's storm-grey eyes. Shirako has mom's amber eyes, not dad's thundercloud ones. And I'm wearing a lot of clothing now, since I get cold easily. Before I'd flounce around in skirts and tank tops, now it's pants, a long-sleeved t-shirt, and a vest at a minimum.

I race a lot, No one in New York City can match me in a race; I'm that I don't like to brag about it too much, I wouldn't want any more enemies than the ones I already have. My car of choice is a modified Chevy Avalanche that I've outfitted with the loudest sound system I could cobble together. It can drown out a rock concert, and I know that because I've literally done it for kicks. Don't believe me? I've got the newspaper articles, hate mail, and noise ordinance violation tickets for proof.

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 **Reviews, follows, and favorites are appreciated! Once again I'm really sorry about the whole nonsense with the fanfic being taken down.**


	2. The Birth of a Team

**Chapter 2: The Birth of a Team**

It was a modest house that sat at the end of the dead-end street, a pale white thing with a few Fourth of July decorations adorning the front. In the driveway was a deep red and black car that appeared to have been in once crash too many. Its owner was a sixteen year old African American girl that was sitting on the porch railing. She was focused on a letter that she held fast in her hand.

"So…" She mused while folding up the paper and slipping it into the envelope. "This Tezla guy is forming a new racing team." Noticing a sleek green car pulling into her driveway, she smirked and raised her voice. "I wonder if Talia got one, she's almost as good a racer as I am."

As she spoke, a Latina got out of the vehicle, a near identical envelope held in her hands. She put on a mock scowl as she marched towards the railing.

"I am a much better racer than you are, Verity, and you and I both know it!" The girl replied in a teasing voice as Verity hopped down off the railing. Normally a comment like that would cause sparks to fly and the result of that would be an impromptu race, but right now the duo didn't have time for that. Verity elected to take the high road and not rise to the bait.

"Better racer aside, Talia, I see you got one of these letters as well." She murmured.

"Sure did." Talia nodded. "Told me to meet up at the old abandoned parking garage to meet my four teammates. Or my three teammates, I suppose, since I know you got an invitation as well. The only thing I don't get is how this Dr. Tezla got our names, or how he knows that we are any good.'

"Well, we are pretty well known for racing in Headstone Alley." Verity mused. "Thank goodness we have a few days, I busted my gearbox a couple of nights ago, so Back Alley will need some work before I can race in her again. How's TechTyte holding up?"

"She's in as good condition as the day she was built," Talia replied proudly. "I bet those jerks for older brothers of mine would be jealous of how good my vehicle is."

"Maybe, maybe not," Verity replied evenly, privately wishing that Talia wouldn't get so hung up on her brothers. It got quite annoying really, she hated them yet was always comparing herself to them, but denied liking anything about them. "I should get to work, that gearbox isn't going to fix itself. Do you want to come with me to the scrapyard so I can get a new one? I heard they pulled those two wrecked cars out of Headstone Alley, and I'm hoping I can take a part from that one."

"You mean to say, Talia can I please have a ride since my car isn't working." Her friend replied as the duo walked back towards the vehicle. "And to that, I have to wonder, why even bother asking when you know the answer's going to be yes?"

* * *

The high rise apartment building was close to Times Square, close enough that you could just see the balloons from the big parade held every Thanksgiving peeking through the buildings as they floated over the one section of the street painted green. A postman was running packages up to the separate rooms and paused before apartment 8G. Placing the small box on the floor, he knocked on the door and left.

Moments later the door opened slightly, allowing a blast of EDM to infiltrate the hallways as an arm reached out to grab the box. Having laid hold of the prize, the limb was pulled back into the room, and the door was shut a moment later.

The Japanese American girl that lived there by herself sat down at the table, happily cranking her music up a few more notches. None of the neighbors complained about the noise, however, as the girl had soundproofed the walls. The manager hadn't been adverse to her suggestion that she do that. In fact, he had practically insisted that she do it when she had shown up to procure the rental.

"Ah, Gale, you sure have fun." The girl recalled, chuckling at the memory. Yes, there were many perks as to having her own apartment at the tender age of sixteen. Her mom didn't complain about her loud music anymore, she could follow her own schedule, and best of all she knew that her mother wasn't hiding letters from her father or brother anymore. The knowledge that the woman who had given birth to Gale had been hiding half of her family from her, and the subsequent lack of trust that this revelation had caused, was the reason why Gale lived on her own, even though her mother was less than a city block away.

"Well, I guess I'd better see what this thing is." Pushing the thoughts of her mother's actions aside, Gale carefully opened the box and retrieved the folded slip of paper that was inside. It was a letter and, with a bit of curiosity lingering in her eye, the girl began to read it. When she finished moments later, she let a low whistle escape.

"Yo, guess I better start packing then." She decided before rising to her feet. "I wonder what kind of clothes I should take to Virginia, anyway."

* * *

"Terra, there's a letter for you!"

The girl in question sighed and got up out of her comfy bed. Her room was small, in reality, it was a converted closet, but she was grateful the junkyard owner - a man who insisted that everyone call him Uncle Tom - let her stay here. He had been the one to rescue her from death on a cold winter's night when she had collapsed on his property, and she had lived with him ever since.

"I'll be right there, Uncle Tom." She yelled back. The Asian American, having announced her intentions, couldn't very well go back to her math textbook, and so reluctantly put it away on the shelf above her bed. It certainly was a quaint little room that she called her own - a bed dominating the entirety of it, a series of shelves positioned above her head for the textbooks she had salvaged from closing schools, and drawers built into the frame that her mattress rested on for clothing. Yes, it was a small room, but it was her room, and for a homeless girl having her own room that didn't consist of a prison cell was a big deal.

Stepping out into the hallway, she blinked her warm brown eyes and tied back her long black hair into a ponytail. Carefully shutting the door behind her, Terra started off down the hallway, making her way down the stairs and into the kitchen, where Uncle Tom was waiting for.

Thomas Blackwing was a chubby old man with a greying beard and mustache, long scraggly hair framed his face and watery blue eyes were set above a mouth that was constantly twisted into a smile. He looked almost like Santa Claus if Santa Claus was a grease monkey that is. How could he not, with a long coat and pants all tarnished with grease stains and dirt smudges, interspersed with rips and tears. Despite his somewhat disheveled appearance, however, he had rescued Terra from being bleeding out or freezing to death - whichever one would have taken her first that night - and taken her in after finding out she had no home. In return for room and board, as well as being able to use some things that were being scrapped, Terra worked in the junkyard for him; as the man was getting quite old and could no longer do as much of the manual labor the job required anymore.

"Here you go." Uncle Tom said as he handed the teenager an envelope. "And just so you know, we received those two cars that crashed in Headstone Alley a few days ago. A couple of girls already took a gearbox out of one of them, but you're free to pull out any parts of pieces you need for that car you're building. Just be sure to let Jose know when you've stripped everything out that's useful so he can melt the rest of it."

"Thanks, I'll be sure to do that," Terra replied before walking out the back door. Sure enough, two badly mangled cars were out near the melting shack, and she walked over to them while scanning the contents of her mail.

"So, a racing team, huh?" The girl murmured. "I guess I'll have to finish my car up, fast."

* * *

"Let me get this straight." The blonde woman said with a sigh. "You want me to let you drive up to Virginia to meet up with four other people that you've never met before because someone is forming a racing team and wants you to be on it?"

"Yeah, Ma." Her daughter, who was munching on a bowl of Corn Flakes, replied happily. "This Tezla dude's, like, asking us to form a racing team."

"I don't know, Aurora…" Her mother hesitated as she continued to wash the dishes. "I know that racing is something many of your cousins and friends do, but I'm getting worried about how much you seem to be doing of it. It seems that every time I turn around you've got another race lined up."

"I know that, Ma, but you've got to let me go!" The girl exclaimed, jumping up from her seat. "Please, Ma? I'm sixteen, old enough to look after myself for a weekend, and maybe this way I'll get to see Greenie again. Last I heard, he was in some racing team."

"Well…" Her mother hesitated some more, but before she could say anything else her daughter interrupted her once more.

"And I've been dying to test out Road Rage's new improvements, Besides, it sounds like everything's already paid for." Here she stopped and fell to her knees, hands clasped out in front of her as she looked at her mother with pleading eyes. "Please, Ma? I promise I'll be good and call you every night."

"Fine." The older woman finally relented, knowing that her daughter would end up going one way or another so she might as well give the teenager her blessing. Aurora's ocean blue eyes lit up and she lept to her feet with a whoop.

"Thanks Ma! I've got to go pack!" And with that the bubbly blonde raced upstairs. "Woo-hoo! Headstone Alley here I come!"

"Headstone Alley?" The mother froze, a shocked look on her face before carefully setting the plate she was washing down. "Aurora Ivy Wheeler, get back down here this instant!"

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	3. Showdown (part 1)

**Chapter 3: Showdown! (part 1)**

The date was December tenth. The time was 12:00. The place was Headstone Alley, named for all the drivers that had crashed there and died. And now six more racers were going to try their luck here in this deadly place.

On one side were three members of the Metal Teku racing team: Talia Pasero, Verity Maddox, and Terra Kitano. The first two were co-leaders of the squad, while Terra shared the mechanic's duties with Gale. Gale also had a race that night in New York City, while Aurora was busy tearing up the roads in Coastline City down in Florida. The team was spread out all over the east coast, and what a feared team they were. Headstone Alley was considered to be their home turf since all of the girls had raced there several times without crashing.

On the other side was a trio of boys: Matthew, Patrick, and Andrew; better known as Matt, Pat, and Andy. They were rookies, talented rookies, but only rookies. Matt had gotten the bright idea to challenge one of the best-known teams in the area to a race in Headstone Alley, hoping that a victory, or even a crash-free loss, would be enough to boost their reputation.

The six were in their cars, awaiting the signal to start their competition. In this case, it was the midnight bell from a nearby church, and as they tensed up a magnificent ringing sound echoed in the air. Like six arrows loosed from crossbows the drivers shifted gears and the cars darted into the alley. Dodging rocks, the tires squealing around sharp corners, each teenager trying to get the win for both themselves and their team. Dark clouds began gathering in the night sky, and then down came the rain, pouring all over the place as lightning ripped the skies to shreds. The few people who were up could hear the rumbles of thunder, the near-silent purrs of six engines, and wondered who on earth would dare to be out on such a night.

Inside the thickest part of the storm, the canyon was beginning to show why it was known as Headstone Alley. Rocks hidden in the gloom seemed to pop up out of nowhere at any moment, and fog began to permeate the area to lend a spooky graveyard-esque feeling to the area. Muddy patches, rock falls, scraggly brush that poked up into the chassis of vehicles and wound around axles until they broke turned the area into a deadly course.

Few drivers dared to challenge the natural raceway. They had grown up hearing tales of drivers caught in rock falls and mudslides, crashes with fiery ends, broken axles and shattered windows, bloody cuts, and fragmented bones. More drivers died here than anywhere else in the state, except on the Thruway. The few brave - or foolish - that did dare to defy the odds and challenge the place were met with mixed feelings. Fellow racers applauded them for their courage and bravery; old folks scoffed at their foolhardiness. And of the select group that could say they had raced in the Alley and live, the Metal Teku were among the best. All of them had raced here several times, and it showed in this race. Their opponents were left in the dust.

"Heh, amateurs," Terra smirked as the headlights receded in the distance. The three boys weren't necessarily bad, and they were being wise in going a lot slower than they would if they were racing, say, on an actual road. But still, they had no hope of ever beating the three girls. The Metal Teku had the race in the bag.

"Look out!" Talia's shout cut through them like a bullet, and as one the trio hit their brakes and came to a crashing halt. A river of mud was flowing down the canyon walls directly in their path, blocking the road before continuing on down into the crevice. It prevented them from accessing the rest of the Alley. Despite the fact that so far no one had crashed - after all, there was the distinct possibility that one of the boys had met with a terrible fate - the Alley had won the race tonight.

"Bummer," Verity muttered as they climbed out of their vehicles to observe the mudflow. "Guess we're not finishing this race tonight."

"Yeah." Talia agreed as the three drivers began to turn and walk back to their cars. "We should head back, let our opponents know that we'll have to settle this another time."

"Hello."

It was a simple word, but it drew quite the reaction from both Talia and Verity, who each jumped about a foot and let out a pair of infernal shrieks. Terra, on the other hand, merely raised an eyebrow. They looked around for the speaker, only to see a small robot floating in front of them.

"Who are you?" Terra inquired coolly as her companions attempted to calm themselves down. It did not take long for them to recover from the shock of the robot's sudden appearance, and they listened closely to this strange device that had interrupted them.

"I am Gig." The robot stated in a voice that was devoid of any human qualities. "I am here on behalf of Dr. Tezla. He needs you to come and race for him, immediately."

"And pray tell, why should we race for this Dr. Tezla you speak of?" Verity wondered.

"The name sounds familiar," Terra said, just loud enough for her companions to hear.

"Yeah, wasn't he the dude that sent us those letters a few months back?" Talia recalled. "You know, the ones that led to the formation of our racing team?" A few quick nods from her companions signified that they, too, had remembered the name of the man.

"Think we should go?" Verity asked, ignoring the robot. Gig was getting a bit perturbed that these three teens were just pretending that he didn't exist, a scarily human quality for a robot, but the Metal Teku could care less. Verity had asked her question, and though she was the co-leader of the team she usually trusted Talia's judgment when it came to blind races.

"How about the three of us go?" Talia suggested after a moment's thought. "If this race checks out, we can call Aurora and Gale to come and join us. And if it doesn't, we leave and don't look back."

"Sounds good. Let's go." Terra muttered, moving towards her car.

"I have uploaded the GPS coordinates of the race to the onboard computers in your vehicles." Gig stated flatly, somehow sounding a bit peeved over being ignored. "Follow them if you wish to race." And with that, the little robot glowed white and vanished. This errand had taken far less time than he had calculated it would, and it appeared that he would be a bit early for his next appointment. The three girls blinked a few times before Talia shrugged. She climbed into Techtyte, Verity and Terra following suit and entering Back Alley and Welded respectively. They gunned the engines before speeding off down the canyon.

Unbeknownst to the three girls, however, was the situation that was going on almost simultaneously in the west.

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	4. Showdown (part 2)

**Chapter 4: Showdown! (part 2)**

The date was December tenth. The time was eight o'clock in the evening. The place was the Coast Road, named so because it wound along a cliff near the sea. And now, the normally tranquil spot was going to be disrupted. Or perhaps it was a bit more accurate to say that it was in the process of being disrupted.

One of the small parking lots, which normally should have been abandoned this late at night, was filled with people. The vast majority of them were spectators, but there was a group of racers. They called themselves the Teku, a team of tech-savvy, techno loving teens and young adults. The biggest music junkie of them all, Shirako Takamoto, was busy pumping music into the air from the speaker set in the trunk of his car, Bassline. Karma was nearby, idly staring down at the waves below. The other three, Kurt Wylde, Vert Wheeler, and the leader of the group Nolo Pasero, were hanging out near where their cars were parked.

They were waiting for their rivals to arrive. So far, only one Metal Maniac - their mechanic Monkey - had shown up, although he swore up and down that Tork and Taro were on their way. Pork Chop was out of town for a few months dealing with family matters, and given how Wylde had almost sent Kurt to the hospital the last time he had shown up to a race against the Teku, the Metal Maniacs had elected to keep their hot-headed teammate in the dark regarding the race.

Not that that mattered, as it turned out. Rumors always spread around like wildfire when it came to races, and Wylde had found out about the events of that night. Currently, he was speeding towards the gathering at a rather furious pace, which matched his black mood almost perfectly.

The gathering was getting antsy - the race was supposed to have started ten minutes ago - and given all the spare time they had on their hands, Nolo and Vert decided to fill it with yet another argument. The two did seem to butt heads a lot, and this time was no different.

"I know the Coast Road better than anybody, Nolo," Vert said, trying to keep his voice neutral. Nolo merely laughed at the surfer's statement, which didn't do anything to help the blonde's mood. "Dude, I used to come out here surfing before I could drive."

"Whatever, man," Nolo replied. "I was driving before I could drive."

Kurt winced as he noticed Vert scowl, anticipating that things were about to go downhill and fast.

"What does that even mean?" Vert demanded, causing Nolo to allow a scowl of his own to flit across his face.

"Remember who's the Teku leader." The Latino snapped, irritated. A few of the people gathered nearby looked over in their direction before going back to their own conversations. Nolo turned back to Vert, and lowered his voice a little, although he didn't lose any of the irritation and anger.

"This is my race, Vert." he hissed. "Stay outta it." And with that, the Latino stalked off towards his car, Synkro. Vert watched him go, an angry frown etched on his face.

"He's only the leader because of his brother." The surfer grumbled before storming off in the opposite direction. After leading his own team in the World Race, he was still having a hard time taking orders from someone a few months younger than he was. Kurt watched him go.

"Hey, it's Nolo's call who races." He called. Unlike Vert, Kurt had no problems taking orders from the young Latino. Sure, Nolo made mistakes, but what leader didn't?

"Hey." Both Kurt and Nolo glanced over to the road, just in time to see Taro Kitano pull himself out of his Roadrunner. Judging from the look on the Asian American Maniac's face, he had witnessed the whole argument.

"Are you Teku here to race, or to fight?" He questioned. Nolo rolled his eyes at Taro's typical bluntness, but privately he was thankful that it had been Taro and not, say, Wylde, who had witnessed that exchange. Sure, Taro did subscribe to the whole the Teku and the Metal Maniacs are bitter rivals thing, but he didn't get as worked up about it as some people did. In fact, he was downright courteous, if a bit cold and distant, to the people that were supposed to be his rivals.

Before Nolo could respond, however, another car pulled up and its driver got out. It was Tork Maddox, a burly African American that looked as if he could easily bench press three hundred pounds, and the leader of the Metal Maniacs. Nolo did not hesitate in his actions and pinned the man with a ferocious glare. Tork likewise responded in kind, though his didn't hold quite as much malice as Nolo's did. For a tense moment, the two remained that way before they abruptly broke off eye contact. Returning to their cars, the racers edged onto the road and up to the makeshift starting line.

Monkey busied himself carrying a portable starting light to the center of the road when all of a sudden a car came tearing out of nowhere. It zoomed right past him, just barely missing running over his toes, before coming to a screeching halt between Synkro and Hollowback.

"Why didn't you tell me we were taking on the Teku?" Wylde demanded angrily, glaring at his leader. Tork rolled his eyes and shook his head. The man had been hoping that the youngest, and most temperamental, of his teammates, wouldn't show up tonight, but apparently he had found out about the race. It looked like he had no choice but to play the leader card.

"Me against Nolo." He said decisively. "That's how we're having it." And with that, he made the executive decision to move the starting line about ten feet down the road. Shifting gears, he moved past Spine Buster before Wylde could argue back. For once Nolo followed his lead without questioning it, glad for an excuse to get away from the Maniac of all Maniacs, as Shirako liked to call him in private.

"I want him, Tork, I want them all, you knew that from the start!" Wylde yelled angrily, a nasty scowl on his face. The drivers ignored them, though Kurt let himself wince hearing the raw fury in his brother's voice. Nolo and Tork edged their cars up a little, trying to gain even a fraction of an inch before the real race started. Both the Latino and the African American glared at each other once more, before focusing completely on the road. Well, at least Tork was focusing on the road. Nolo himself was thinking about another race, one that had happened about two years ago.

He had been sitting in the passenger seat of Synkro, a few months after his sixteenth birthday. The Latino had just started driving in street races with the Teku. But Nolo himself had not been the leader. No, back then his older brother Tone was.

 _"You're trying to take my place?" Tone asked as he waited for the light to change. Beside him, Nolo nodded._

 _"I know I can beat Tork." He replied confidently. His older brother, however, merely laughed. Here was his little brother, who had just turned sixteen a little while ago, and who had just started street racing; and yet he fully believed that he was more than capable of taking down one of the best racers in the city who had more experience than Nolo had._

 _"Yes, and I'm sure Talia is just as capable of beating Tork. Maybe I should call her up and have her race." Tone replied teasingly._

 _"Talia doesn't_ race. _" Nolo argued. "Besides, she's still recovering from being run over by that drunk trucker. And aside from that, she hates both of us. Why on earth would she do anything to help the two of us out?"_

Tone _glanced down at the steering wheel, lost in thought and regret. Realizing what he had said, Nolo quickly scrambled for a way to regain the lost cheerfulness._

 _"And besides." He added. "I don't think Tork races girls. He's never raced Karma before."_

Tone _smiled, and let out some sort of weak chuckle. It was refreshing how naive his little brother could be when it came to street racing, even if it appeared that he was trying to direct the conversation away from their estranged younger sister._

 _"C'mon, Tone." Nolo pleaded. "Let me race him."_

 _"You want to be the leader now,_ lil _' bro?" Tone asked while playfully punching Nolo on the shoulder._

Yes, Nolo had wanted to race so badly. But Tone had said no, and then he had died in a crash. Now, it was Nolo's turn to race Tork, and his chance to get revenge for his brother's death. Why wouldn't he want revenge? The way he saw it, the justice system failed to properly deal with Tone's death, so now it fell to Nolo to make sure the man that had murdered him suffered.

Monkey had moved his light over to the new starting line and was busy trying to turn it on. Shirako had wandered over with a remote, a screwdriver held loosely in his hands. The two mechanics were perhaps the most civil to each other out of all the members of the team; oftentimes since they were forced to work together to make sure the races ran smoothly. Monkey was getting a bit frustrated when the machine refused to light up and angrily kicked it. The percussive maintenance seemed to do the trick, and a red column of light filled the sky.

"This is Monkey." He said into a cell phone. "Is the road clear yet?" Behind him, Tork and Nolo revved their engines; impatient to get on with the race. "These guys aren't going to wait much longer." Both racers were tempted to just split right then and there. But finally, the jumpy ginger heard the magic words.

"All clear!"

Shirako was close enough to hear those words, and with a grin, he pressed the single button on the remote control. Moments later the light turned green. Both of the racers shifted gears and sped forward, Tork pulling just ahead of Nolo. The pair sped by Monkey, missing him only by a few inches. Then they were gone, rapidly receding into the night.

"Here they come!" Monkey reported as he began lugging his starting light off the road. Behind him, Wylde was steadily becoming more and more fed up with the night's proceedings, and though his brother was a tempting target the desire to race outweighed the desire to beat Kurt up.

"I'm going to show you what Wylde is all about." He snapped before shooting off after the others.

"Wylde!" Mentally cursing his teammate's foolishness Taro climbed back into his car and sped off after him, Monkey and the Teku not far behind.

* * *

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	5. A New Race

**Chapter 5: A New Race**

In the east, three cars were speeding down the highway directly in the middle of the road. It was pitch black, practically midnight, and no one was in sight. Given that, it was only logical to conclude that the three drivers probably were not following the posted speed limit. Talia was in the lead in TechTyte, while Verity in Back Alley and Terra in Welded were not too far behind.

"So, what do you two think about this race, anyway?" Talia inquired. "After all, it's not every day that a floating robot invites you to go on a cross country road trip to race."

"It sounds fishy." Verity muttered. "I smell a rat."

"I smell more than a rat." Terra said, almost to herself. "Whoever this Tezla guy is, he seems to have no problem messing with our lives. First he sticks us on a team together along with Gale and Aurora, then he pretty much demands that we drop everything to come and race for him. Either he just doesn't care about the fact that we have lives, or someone's ordering him to lure us into a trap. For all we know, that robot could have only said he was sent by Tezla, and is taking orders from someone else. If we get ambushed, it could have disastrous consequences."

"Yeah, that's true." Talia decided. "Stay sharp girls, we have to be ready for anything."

The drivers continued on the road in silence. Talia turned on some techno music, which was playing softly over the speakers in her car. None of the other girls complained. They were glad to have something to listen to, and the ever-changing music would help keep them awake over the long drive.

* * *

Tork and Nolo sped around the sharp turns of the road in the near darkness, headlights illuminating only a fraction of the asphalt. They usually would have been neck and neck, and at first they were. But Nolo took a couple of turns to wide and began to fall behind, causing him to groan in frustration. Tork smirked. Looks like he would be winning this race.

Nolo scowled, not appreciating the sight of Hollowback directly in front of him. The Latino was not planning on settling for second best, not anytime in the future, and certainly not now. Playtime was officially over.

The Latino reached out and turned on his music, and breathed a quick sigh of relief as the music did as he was hoping it would: drown out the bad memories he had of Tone's crash, and allow him to focus on the race. He sped up and rammed Tork's car before pulling up alongside of him.

"Back off, punk!" The African American snarled.

"This is for you, bro," Nolo whispered before ramming Tork's car again. A terrible screeching sound filled the air as the metal of Hollowback scraped against the metal guardrail.

"So, that's the way you want to play, huh?" Tork muttered. He had hoped to just race, but now the kid gloves were off. Reaching down, he activated the flamethrower built into the side of his car. Reddish orange flames flew out and darted at the side of Synkro, forcing Nolo to pull away or risk getting burned.

However, unbeknownst to either of them, the pair was about to get some rather unwelcome company, and in the very near future.

Wylde had managed to catch up to the racers, who were so busy with their race/fight that they hadn't noticed him. Now that Nolo had pulled away, there was a small space in between the two cars; just large enough for him to squeeze by. And squeeze by he did, causing sparks to fly as he forced his way past. Nolo cried out in shock, while Tork rolled his eyes. Wylde, for his part, laughed maniacally. At least he was in a better mood.

Finally, Spine Buster cleared the two cars. Because they had been pressed against the car in the middle, both Nolo and Tork suddenly found themselves drifting sharply towards the middle of the road. Before either driver could react, they crashed into each other and spun out. Tork ended up hitting the guardrail, resulting in the driver's side tires resting over the rail; leaving it tilted at an angle. Nolo crashed into a pile of dirt, causing his car to pull a backflip and land on a sharp incline. Had the surface been any more vertical and he would have been literally standing on the car's front end. The Latino groaned and rubbed his head, before beginning to check himself over for injuries. Tork pulled himself out of his car, flexing his wrist to make sure nothing had broken in the crash.

"Ha hah! Go Wylde!" Wylde laughed as he continued speeding on down the road; practically oblivious to the crash he had just caused. Tork would probably, no definitely, chew him out for this later, but at the moment the youngest Wylde brother could care less. He rounded the corner, only to see a robot that he vaguely recognized as Gig floating in the middle of the road.

He let out a rather undignified yelp and swerved to one side, causing him to hit the cliff wall. That, in turn, caused him to spin out into the guardrail. As his car was going much faster than Tork's was when it hit the barrier, this time the railing didn't hold up. It buckled, before a jagged piece of metal ripped away from the fence. Spine Buster began to fall towards the beach below, causing its driver to panic slightly. Wylde smashed his fist into a button on his dashboard, causing a grappling hook to shoot out of the front end of his vehicle and entrench itself in the cliff wall. His car came to a crashing halt as it smashed into the rocky face, causing Wylde to smack his head against the steering wheel. There he hung, forty feet above the sand.

"Maybe I should've just hit the brakes." He muttered. Up above him, five cars rounded the bend and came to a stop. Sling Shot was in the lead, and Kurt got out of his vehicle with a worried look on his face. Despite the fact that his little brother hated his guts, Kurt couldn't help but worry about him. Vert, Karma, Taro, and Monkey - Shirako had stopped at the crash site to help Nolo get Synkro off of the junk pile and to make sure that no one needed an ambulance - followed his lead. The last of the group ran over to the hole in the metal fence, grabbing onto the slightly bent pole of a wrecked signpost to prevent him from tumbling to the ground below. He could just see Wylde in his car, trying to get back to the top.

"Wylde's okay!" he said happily. "He's cranking back up." Kurt let out a breath he was holding in. Then he, and Vert, walked over to Gig; Karma trailing behind them.

"What're you doing here?" Vert wondered.

"Dr. Tezla needs you." Explained the robot.

"Oh really." Kurt scoffed. "What about after the World Race when we needed him to give us more nitrox? He wouldn't even talk to us!" It was obvious that there was some bad blood between this Tezla guy and Kurt.

"Dr. Tezla needed all of the fuel for his racers!" Gig replied flatly.

"But we wanted to go through the portals again!" Vert argued. "And race on Highway 35!"

"No one can go through the portals now." Gig finally said. "Gelorum and her Racing Drones have taken the Wheel of Power."

Kurt and Vert looked at each other, then walked towards their cars. Karma shrugged, before following them. As long as there was a race, she was cool with also walked towards his car, knowing that now wasn't the time to focus on petty rivalries.

"Hey, Taro." Monkey asked. "This Wheel of Power business – what does it all mean?"

"Trouble," Taro replied shortly. And with that, he too headed towards his Roadrunner, expecting that to be the end of Monkey's question. But the jumpy ginger was not to be deterred and walked after his teammate.

"Hey, Taro." He asked, not noticing the annoyance that flashed across Taro's face. "This Tezla dude…Wylde told me he gave, like, millions of dollars to some of his drivers." Taro groaned under his breath. Leave it to his hotheaded teammate to blab about the World Race.

"You're coming?" He asked, allowing a note of surprise to creep into his voice.

"You think Tork would mind?" he wondered. Taro shrugged before getting into his car and starting it up. Monkey took one look back at the crash site – where his leader was currently hitting the hood of his car in frustration – and gulped nervously before looking at the retreating form of Taro's car.

"Hey! Wait up, Taro!" he yelled before hurrying to Rollin' Thunder.

The Teku were heading to their cars when they almost crashed into Nolo. And he was not happy with what had happened.

"Give me a car!" he snapped angrily. "I want to finish this thing tonight!"

"There's something we have to do, Nolo," Vert said apologetically before continuing on towards his car, eager to get away from the Latino. Karma also bypassed her leader, making a beeline for Chicane.

"What's he talking about?" Nolo demanded. "Nothing's more important than the Teku!"

"This is." Replied Kurt tersely before walking towards Sling Shot. After seeing his brother almost die, hearing about the return of Gelorum, learning about the Wheel of Power's theft, and other circumstances, he was less than happy.

The three Teku roared down the road, barely missing their leader who was standing in the center. Nolo watched them go before growling in frustration. Then he limped back down the road towards the crash, where he could see Shirako had pulled up in Bassline.

Several hours had passed by the time the trio of girls had made it into California. They turned south, pulled off the road, and accelerated into the desert as they dodged rock formations and sand dunes. Dust was whipped up into the air in the girls' wake, enough to make it look like they were being chased by a sandstorm.

Eventually, they pulled into an old, decrepit cube-shaped building. Holes in the metal and fabric walls let sand and wind blow into the building, creating an eerie whistling sound. Some plants were growing in the shady building, and rust frosted over the rafters. It had been abandoned for a long time.

"Why would Tezla send us to a dump like this?" Talia wondered, not bothering to mince words. Terra shrugged, while Verity had an equally baffled look on her face.

"Hello? Is someone there?" An unfamiliar voice cut through the air. all three girls stiffened, and Terra reached for a large pocket knife.

"Who's there?" Verity asked aloud. From the shadows, an African emerged. He was dressed in a plain brown and yellow racing suit, and his long dreadlocks were held back in a ponytail. A kind smile was on his face.

"My name is Kadeem." He announced. "I take it you three are members of the Metal Teku, yes?"

"You've got that right! I'm Talia Pasero," Talia said.

"My name's Verity Maddox," Verity added. "Talia and I are co-leaders of the team."

"I am Terra Kitano," Terra stated in her low voice.

"Any relation to Taro Kitano?" Kadeem asked.

"Unfortunately, yes," Terra muttered with a scowl. Kadeem wisely decided not to press the matter further; as it was obvious it was a touchy subject with the girl.

"So, what're doing hanging out around here?" Talia wondered aloud. It was a good question. What was this strange man doing here in the middle of a desert?

"I'm supposed to guide you to the race," Kadeem replied. "But we have to wait for the others first."

"Others?" Terra wondered, allowing a question to creep into her voice. Talia and Verity looked at each other. What others?

* * *

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	6. The First Encounter

**Chapter 6: The First Encounter**

"When do you think the other racers that are supposed to be coming will bother to show up?" Talia wondered. The Latina was practically bored to tears, sitting around waiting for what seemed like forever for this competition to bother showing up. She was tired, a bit cranky, and still brooding over the fact that Kadeem had been infuriatingly tight-lipped when pressed for information about the race.

"Soon, I hope," Terra replied. The Asian American was extremely anxious to get a move on, having lived a nomadic lifestyle for several years before settling down with Uncle Tom. So she was understandably a little uneasy about hanging around unfamiliar territory for a long while. She remembered the last time she trusted someone else.

That time caused her to end up in a juvenile prison. She had rotted for six years all because she had been framed for a crime she hadn't committed. It had been horrible.

Her teammates knew why Terra was so antsy, although a person who wasn't used to her might not notice her emotions or feelings. They knew why she wanted to get a move on. Unless she felt safe, she wouldn't stick around a place any longer than what was absolutely necessary.

"Just sit down and relax. Chill, Terra." Talia said as she briefly slid out from under her car. "We probably won't have to wait too much longer." And with that, she slid back under the car, returning to messing around with the under chassis lighting.

"Talia's right, Terra," Verity added from where she was working under the hood of her car. "I'm sure the other racers will be here shortly."

Terra sighed, then opened the door to her car and began working on the dashboard. Kadeem watched the interaction between the three women with interest before deciding that checking out his car wouldn't be the worst thing in the world and started examining the spoiler.

* * *

"So what's this whole Highway 35 thing, anyway?" Karma wondered.

"The real Highway 35 was a track that existed in a different dimension that was created by these weird ancient dudes called Accelerons," Vert explained as he glanced back at Chicane using his rearview mirrors.

"That's what you call real?" Karma asked skeptically.

"Tezla recruited the best drivers for the World Race," Kurt added.

"Yeah, it was me and Kurt, Taro, and-" Vert started to elaborate, but Karma interrupted him, wanting to know who won. Kurt butted in that it didn't matter who won, just that Tezla wanted the Wheel of Power at the end of the track.

"Hey, Taro!" Monkey called. "Wylde's here!" Taro rolled his eyes, knowing full well that since Kurt and Wylde would both be here, he had an awful lot of fights to look forward to. Meanwhile, Wylde had caught up with the others and sped past Monkey, kicking up clouds of dust in his wake. Monkey coughed a few times to clear his throat.

"Hey!" he yelled. "This isn't a race!"

"It's always a race," Wylde replied before sideswiping Karma. She grit her teeth and tried to regain control of her car while Wylde rear-ended his brother, before speeding past him and Vert, taking the lead.

"Maniac," Kurt muttered sourly, angrily thinking of the long hours ahead of him while he tried to hammer out the dents Spine Buster had put in his bumper. However, Markie didn't hear him and led the way to the distant cube without a second glance back.

The drivers pulled into the decrepit building and were met with a very shocking sight.

"Is that…Synkro?" Vert asked as he got out.

"What's Tork doing here?" Monkey wondered. Sure enough, in the cube were two very familiar looking cars. One looked like Synkro, while the other looked like Hollowback. However, the paint jobs were drastically different, especially on Synkro. And they weren't alone. Two girls were standing nearby, while a third one had her back to the newcomers and was working on a car that appeared to be held together with welded metal seams and more than a few prayers. One of the girls, the Latina, scowled.

"Synkro? As if that hunk of junk could even dream of keeping up with TechTyte." She snorted, while her African American companion let out a sigh. The Teku visibly bristled at her words - an insult to any of the team's vehicles was an insult to those who used them - while Wylde smirked and laughed. Taro was impassive as always, and Monkey, torn between his loyalty to his team and the knowledge that while Synkro was a rival's car it was far from being a hunk of junk, did nothing.

"Who are you?" Karma inquired coldly, noting the similarities between her leader and the girl before her, right down to the angry look that was near identical to the one constantly gracing Nolo's face.

"Who wants to know?" The girl working on her car turned around and walked into the light. More than one of the drivers stared at her, causing a scowl to flit across her face. Taro alone was the impassive one, though in truth it was a bit disconcerting to see a face that was so similar to his own.

"The Teku and the Metal Maniacs," Kurt said quickly. The African American smiled, hearing the latter's name, while the Latina groaned at the mention of the former.

"Oh great." She said. "So tell me, is Nolo still alive, or did he do the world a favor and join his brother?"

Her words were enough to open raw wounds for more than one of the drivers, particularly Karma since she and Tone had been romantically involved before he had died. Vert frowned, studying the girl and her car. Suddenly it clicked.

"You're Nolo and Tone's sister, aren't you?" He asked, causing a black look to take over the girl's features.

"Was their sister." She corrected angrily. "Tone made it quite clear that he wanted nothing to do with me when he and Nolo ran off to California. Since they abandoned me, I don't consider them to be my brothers anymore."

"Talia, enough." The African American pleaded. "He obviously isn't here right now, and these people don't seem to know what happened."

"Yeah, whatever." Talia didn't sound too happy, but she let the subject matter drop. Taro's look-alike still said nothing, her glare fixed on nothing in particular.

"So, where's Tork?" The final girl in the trio, who had introduced herself as Verity Maddox, inquired. "It's been awhile since I've seen him."

"He crashed racing their knucklehead of a leader." Wylde jerked his thumb towards the Teku.

"What he's conveniently leaving out is that he recklessly chased after them, despite the fact that Tork told him he wasn't racing, caused the crash, and then crashed himself," Kurt added, causing Wylde to scowl.

* * *

Kadeem yawned and sat up in his car, where it was parked in shadows. He had elected to take a nap after looking over his car. The sounds of yelling had awakened him, and he was met with the sight of Taro and a skinny ginger physically restraining a rather irate looking muscular man from strangling someone that Kadeem recognized as Kurt Wylde. Kurt wasn't the only one he recognized since Vert was nervously standing off to the side. Electing to greet him first, he climbed out of Crazy 8s and walked over.

"Vert!" The fighting magically seemed to stop as he walked out of the shadows, a smile appearing on the blonde's face as he gave his old friend a fistbump. "It's been a long time."

"Good to see you again," Vert replied, ignoring the strange looks Monkey and Karma were giving the man.

"Excellent. Now that everyone has either woken up or decided to not act like children, can we please leave?" The last girl, who when pressed for a name had only responded with Terra, asked.

"Is that Tezla?" Monkey inquired, ignoring her.

"My name is Kadeem. Who are you?" Kadeem

"He's just a freaky little Metal Maniac, Kadeem," Kurt replied dismissively, causing both Monkey and Taro to tense up, ready for a fight.

"That means he's the best, like me and Taro, huh?" Markie said smugly, apparently oblivious to the fact that not even two minutes prior he was ready to strangle the elder Wylde brother.

"Real drivers are Teku." Kurt shot back as the rival teams glared at each other. Talia opened her mouth to make a snide remark and then thought better of it. Verity sighed in a bit of annoyance, while Terra remained as impassive as ever. Finally, Kadeem broke the tension by laughing.

"Yes, I see how it is." He said, having long since grown accustomed to the different rivalries that races attracted.

"So, you get everything straightened out back home?" Vert asked, scrambling to find a way to diffuse the growing tension. If he was hoping for a positive answer, those hopes were dashed when Kadeem shook his head.

"No." He replied. "My people will have to wait because this cannot."

"Joy," Terra muttered under her breath, just barely loud enough for her teammates to hear before raising her voice to address the rest of the group. "So, are we going to stand around here, or are we actually going to head off to this race?"

* * *

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	7. The Acceledrome

**Chapter 7: The Acceledrome**

"Tezla has built a new headquarters where no one can find him," Kadeem explained as he led the nine racers through a natural rock maze. "Stay behind me, and match my speed."

Taro was directly behind the African, while Terra had claimed third place by just barely brushing past Wylde right before the group was forced into a single file straight line. Wylde hadn't been too happy about that, but the girl could care less. She was too busy privately bemoaning the predicament her rotten luck that had gotten her into this time. Why oh why did her half-brother have to be here? It was a pain in the neck, especially since he had no clue who she was. That would be one awkward conversation when the truth came out, and it wasn't one that Terra was looking forward to having. Not that Taro would probably care enough to ask, anyway.

Shaking her head to clear it, the younger Kitano pressed down on the gas. Kadeem had started to speed up as he led them through another turn, accelerating one final time. Then, to the immense shock of Monkey, he drove straight over the edge of a cliff.

"Whoa!" He yelped as he slammed down on the brakes. "Dead end!" Rolling Thunder spun out and came to stop, resting against a rock pile. Taro didn't have the luxury of being able to slow down, and he trusted Kadeem anyway. Without hesitation, he followed the African, the girl that looked so much like him not far behind. Monkey gasped in fear, certain that he had just seen a trio of deaths occur, but was immensely shocked when the drivers phased through the cliff wall instead of being smashed to pieces.

"That's impossible." Monkey started to say before he was rudely cut off by the Teku cars blowing past him. They too made the jump over the empty space and vanished through the wall; Verity and Talia not that far behind.

Inside of the mesa, Karma and the Metal Teku were surprised to find not a solid rock, but a high tech base. A metal catwalk formed a second level that curved around an orange track that led to nowhere, while a large tower was standing off to the side of the track, and tunnels seemed to lead away from the main chasm. The center of the room was dominated by absolutely nothing but empty air.

That soon changed, however, as the drivers congregated at the rail fence that seemed to surround some sort of machine built into the floor. A flare of yellow light shot out of it, gradually coalescing into the form of a man's head.

"Welcome to the Acceledrome." He proclaimed.

* * *

"Hello?" Monkey's voice echoed around the canyon, no doubt infiltrating the hidden caverns contained within. He received no response, and nervously looked down into the gorge and then over to the canyon walls. He flinched, picturing himself smashing into a thousand bits, then shook his head. Shifting into reverse, he backed up about a good two hundred feet.

"Alright." He muttered. "Here it goes." With that he shifted gears and sped forward, catapulting off of the cliff. Monkey flinched, still convinced he was about to be squashed like a bug any moment as the rock wall loomed closer and closer. Suddenly he was through, coming in for a bumpy landing on the ground.

"Did I miss anything?" He asked as he climbed out of the car. The others looked at him briefly before redirecting their attention to the hologram, which was still speaking.

"Gelorum and her Racing Drones have taken the Wheel of Power," Tezla announced. "Before the Wheel was taken, I discovered it was more than just a source of power. Countless new worlds, which I call the Racing Realms, have started to open. It is my wish to explore these Realms and to stop the drones at any cost. The journey of discovery begins here."

As the man said here, his image faded out, replaced by a giant ring that was slowly revolving in a circle. The drivers stood there for a minute in silence, trying to process what they had just heard. Kurt and Vert had excited looks on their faces, as did Wylde. Taro was impassive as always, and Karma looked slightly interested in what had just happened. Monkey looked nervous, and Kadeem already knew this, so he was just waiting for the others to get over their shock. Talia, Verity, and Terra all had skeptical looks on their faces.

"So, what do you think?" Verity wondered, breaking the silence. Talia snorted.

"In my humble yet honest opinion, this guy's a complete and total loon!" she said. "I mean, come on, does this guy think we're dumb or something? Alternate dimensions, killer robots, aliens…isn't that stuff science fiction?"

"Apparently not," Terra replied impassively, her mind still distracted by Taro.

"Hey!" the girls were pulled out of their musings to see that the other drivers were ascending the stairs.

"Are you going to stay there all day, or are you going to grace us with your presence in the conference room?" Vert yelled.

"Okay, okay, we're coming, Greenie." Talia hollered back. "No need to get so worked up."

"Hey, it's Vert!" Vert sounded rather annoyed at the remark.

"Whoops, our mistake," Verity replied quickly.

"Maybe we should have Aurora come for the sole purpose of annoying her cousin." Terra murmured, a rare smirk crossing her face. "It would be rather amusing."

"Yeah, that would be funny." Talia agreed as they began to walk up the stairs. She was pretty certain that almost all of the Teku hated her already for insulting Nolo, and she really didn't need to give any of them any more reason to hate her, but having Aurora around would be worth it.

Verity took one look at the almost devious look on her co-leader's face and sighed. She was a smart girl, and she could already tell that things weren't going to end well.

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	8. Realms

**Chapter 8: Realms**

There were only a few seats available by the time the girls got to the conference room as most of them already had been claimed. Kadeem had taken one of the three at the narrow end of the table, and then fifteen stretched around the sides. The Teku had taken the left, Metal Maniacs were seated on the right, which left the other end for the Metal Teku. Talia and Verity sat down, though Terra remained standing as she slouched against the wall, an indecipherable look on her face. There was a tense silence as the teams observed one another until finally, Karma broke it.

"So, which one is the Wheel of Power?" She inquired, referencing both the large hologram out in the main chamber and the smaller yet identical one that hovered over the table before them.

"They are both holograms," Kadeem replied.

"Exact three-dimensional recreations." A girl added with a hint of pride in her voice as she walked into the room, followed closely by Gig. She was rather familiar to more than one of the drivers, and a smile spread across her face as she caught sight of Vert.

"Lani!" Vert said excitedly, happy to see his old teammate. "It's good to see another Wave Ripper."

"I'm not driving, Vert." She replied, ignoring the confused looks crossing the faces of the drivers who were not familiar with all of the details of the race that had happened three years prior. "I've been working with Tezla in the Acceledrome. He didn't tell me who was coming."

This last remark was punctuated by an angry glare at Taro, who merely gazed back at her calmly. Lani had a look on her face that could either be described as distaste or disgust; though it quickly shifted to shock and confusion as she turned back towards Vert and caught sight of Terra.

"Who are you?" The Hawaiian sounded utterly mystified, though Terra only shrugged in response. "You look just like Taro."

"No, really?" Terra's voice was monotonous, and the flat tone made it difficult to tell if she was being sarcastic or serious.

"While studying the Wheel, Dr. Tezla recorded the unique patterns of its wavelengths and vibrations-"

"Yeah, yeah, scrap the lecture Gig, we're here to race." Markie interrupted the robot in a dismissive tone. He didn't care about the science behind what was going on, he just wanted an excuse to make the others eat his dust.

"The holograms react with the same emanations as the actual Wheel of Power." Gig continued on, undeterred by the interruption.

"Is he speaking English?" Monkey asked nobody in particular. "He's speaking English, right?"

"In a very real sense, the image is the Wheel." The robot summed up.

"Really dumb question, but couldn't you just say that outright why?" Talia queried.

"And that means…?" Karma asked over Talia's muttered exclamation.

"Dr. Tezla believes that the Wheel of Power has been opening the Racing Realms," Lani explained. Taro rolled his eyes, bored with the entire proceedings. He stood up and walked over to the window. He knew from previous experience that Tezla himself was the only human capable of fully understanding Accelian tech. The most he needed to know was that the Wheel was opening the Realms and that since Tezla was worried about Gelorum, she was most likely entering these Realms. That was all.

Right now, he was a bit more intrigued by Terra. Taro was no fool, he knew that his father had been unfaithful about seventeen years ago, and by his estimates, Terra was around that age. Combined with the fact that she was the spitting image of his father, the chances of her being an unintended side effect of the affair was quite high. It felt odd, wrong, to think of a human as an unintended side effect, but in truth that was what had happened.

Terra also stood upright, though since she had been stationary before she now began to pace back and forth near the doorway, obviously distracted by some thought train in her head. Eyes scanned the room, searching for something. Ah, there it was. Just barely hidden in the corner she could make out the darkened lens of a camera. Someone was watching them, and given the fact that Dr. Tezla was absent, it made sense to assume that he was observing the group.

"And Gelorum and her Racing Drones are entering them." Gig finished.

"Why?" Talia wondered. "Why are they entering the Realms? What's in it for them?"

"She has a point," Verity added. "Why enter these Realms for nothing? What's the point of racing in the Realms?"

"Why do you think that there's some sort of incentive, some sort of prize?" Vert queried.

"There's always a prize in a race," Terra muttered, pausing a minute in her endless pacing. "Be it glory, money, or some other thing with material value."

"Dr. Tezla believes that the Wheel of Power has already opened several Racing Realms and that each time that the Drones enter them, they grow more powerful."

"Whatever is at the end of the Realms must be even more powerful than even the Wheel of Power." Kadeem postulated.

"Well, if this thing's so powerful, then it must be worth a lot of money!" Monkey said.

Talia shook her head, while Verity groaned and rolled her eyes. Kadeem merely laughed.

"Why is he laughing?" Monkey wondered aloud.

"Money isn't everything in life." Terra scolded him. Monkey gulped nervously, trapped under the scrutiny of her warm brown eyes.

"We must reach the end of the next Realm before the Racing Drones." Kadeem declared.

"Why should we?" Kurt challenged. "Last time it was to get the Wheel for Tezla. What does the doctor want now?" The distaste was obvious in his voice, making it clear that there was some bad blood between them.

"How should we know?" Vert pointed out. "Tezla's motives could be anything."

"Now more than ever, we need the best drivers to-" Gig started to say.

"The hologram's moving," Taro muttered. Almost as soon as the words left the older Asian's mouth, the klaxons started to blare.

"A new Realm is opening!" Lani said, walking over to stand next to Taro at the window.

"Alright, what're we waiting for? C'mon, let's go!" Markie said, hot to trot to get into the race.

"We need nitrox." Vert pointed out.

"Worry about that later," Talia said, standing along with Verity. The two made tracks for the door, Terra following not too far behind. The Teku and the Metal Maniacs followed them, the group of racers splitting off to grab nitrox. Wylde was the first one to reach them and swore after doing a quick count.

"There's not enough." He complained.

"Move out of the way, will you?" Talia roughly pushed past him, a few nasty Spanish curses tumbling out of her mouth as she saw that the Metal Maniac was right. "We're missing four."

"Great," Vert muttered. "Now what do we do?"

"Talia and I will stay behind." Verity quickly volunteered, ignoring the look of protest on her co-leader's face. "I think I would like to take the time to properly install the nitrox tanks on Back Alley rather than just go slapping them on."

Talia grumbled slightly under her breath, but grabbed two tanks and handed them off to Terra, ignoring the others as they swarmed the container to grab their own fuel.

"Are you okay with racing one of these solo?" She asked.

"Sure, couldn't be better," Terra replied with a glance over at her half-brother, before vanishing back in the direction of the cars. Talia watched her go before glancing over at Verity.

"How come you just volunteered me as one of the two people that weren't going to race?" She demanded, a bit angrily. "I didn't spend over a day in that infernal desert just to miss out on a chance to prove I'm good at what I do for a living."

"I know, Talia, but you have to understand that you've already made some enemies here," Verity replied, ignoring the clamor of the alarm and the sounds of engines starting up as Gig proclaimed that the Realm had opened. "The Teku aren't happy about how you insulted Nolo and Synkro, I wouldn't put it past them to be gunning for your head in this Realm, especially Karma. Judging from how she reacted when you spoke of Tone's death, I'd assume her relationship with him went beyond them just being teammates."

"Hey, we live in a free country. I have a right to express my opinion." Talia muttered.

"And so do they," Verity replied. "Look, just promise me that if Nolo comes here, you'll at least not try to beat him up. I'm not saying you have to act as if everything is all butterflies and roses between the two of you, but at least try to be civil."

"Why should I? His actions almost killed me." Her teammate retorted.

"Talia, please." The African American murmured. "I don't want you to do something that you might regret later."

"Ugh, fine." The Latina finally relented. "But I'm telling you right now, I'm not going to pretend like everything's fine between us."

* * *

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	9. The Storm Realm

**Chapter 9: The Storm Realm**

"There's no track!"

Those were the first words that Terra heard as she came through the portal. It was an odd sensation, traveling through the dimensional portal. Not exactly uncomfortable, but overall not that pleasant. It was nerve-wracking enough with all the shaking, and Terra was quite surprised that her car hadn't fallen apart. But now, to hear that there was no track? Well, that was almost the last straw, so to speak. She didn't trust this mysterious Tezla anyway - he seemed to think that she was one of his own personal playthings, and saw no problem in meddling with her life - but this made her absolutely furious. Her quiet anger, much different from the one that that insufferably irritating Metal Maniac had, boiled beneath the surface; causing her to privately curse the old man for causing her death.

Or not, apparently, since a track appeared out of nowhere, lost in the gloom of storm clouds that hurled lightning bolts at the orange surface. One by one in a series of clunks the cars made contact with the alien asphalt, and soon they were speeding down the straightaway.

"Does anyone know what is holding this track up?" Kadeem asked from where he was in the lead position. Terra shrugged, a brief smile crossing her face as she heard her brother tell him in a flat tone of voice to go ask the Accelerons.

That thought was so unexpected that it might as well have struck her across the face, and the girl almost slammed down on her brakes. Brother? Taro wasn't her brother. Why she wasn't even supposed to exist, and even if she was he would no doubt be as ashamed of her as the man they both were supposed to call father was. Terra was a flaw in an otherwise perfect equation, the one thing that was keeping him from living what Hollywood tabloids would deem a perfect life.

The girl was driving on autopilot at this point, hands and feet doing what they were supposed to do but the mind a million miles away. She ignored the storm that was swirling by them, the winds threatening to rip their cars from the track, even Monkey's scream of mental anguish when Gig jokingly asked who informed the group that they were getting paid for risking their necks. No, her mind was in the past. Or rather, to be more specific, her past.

The girl that called herself Terra Kitano had been born in a back alley in Los Angeles. Her mother had been sheltered by a local gang that was sympathetic to her plight, and one of the female gang members had acted as the midwife. She was an only child. Or rather, as far as she knew she was an only child. Some deep, almost primal instinct told her that she had siblings, and Terra was pretty certain that those instincts weren't talking about Taro. No, it had to be someone else. But who?

Regardless, right now Taro was her only confirmed sibling. To be more accurate, he was, in fact, her half-brother. Taro's father had tricked Terra's mother into believing that he was a single man, and the two had begun a relationship. When the scandal broke loose, Taro's father cut off all communications with his lover. What neither of them realized, however, was that Terra's mother was pregnant with his child.

Nine months later Terra - and possibly another sibling or two, she wasn't certain - had been born. The young mother and her child moved out to the east, away from the Kitano family. Terra grew up on the streets, the daughter of a poor, working-class mother. She didn't have a formal education, could barely read or write or do math for a while. Her dear, sweet mother taught her what she knew, but it wasn't much. And then the unthinkable happened.

At the tender age of six, her mother died and she was homeless. Terra was on her own, and soon learned the ways of the street. She survived a few years as a beggar and a thief until finally she had been framed for a crime she hadn't committed: burglary. The illegitimate Kitano was a pickpocket, true, but she only stole enough to buy food for her belly and not a penny more. Besides, breaking into homes wasn't her style. But still, she was convicted and sent to a juvenile detention center.

Quite honestly, Terra saw it mostly as an improvement. Sure, the food was bad and her freedom was gone, and the cells were searched each night; but at least she had food three times a day and a roof over her head. And they started to give her an education. But being locked up took its toll, and she became a dark and bitter person.

She spent five years in that place. Five years where officially she wasn't Terra Kitano, she was prisoner number CR-S02. Terra hated that serial number hated it with an ugly burning passion. Granted, the social worker, therapist, and doctors she was assigned to go see addressed her by her name as much as possible, as did a few of the guards, but officially she wasn't human. She was nothing more than a number in the system, a statistic to scientists, and a criminal to the world.

Some of the people, including the warden of the prison, were rather sympathetic to her plight. It was hard not to feel sorry for the girl, as it did seem that the entire world was against her. He even slipped her twenty bucks when she was finally released. Terra was pretty certain that doing so was against several laws, but it was nice to know that someone cared. They all knew that she wasn't going home to any sort of family.

The girl ended up hitchhiking and walking across the country, doing odd jobs along the way. She even ran into Taro once, although the girl doubted that he remembered that particular encounter. Eventually she wound up in Virginia, collapsed in a scrapyard in the middle of the night, and then woke up to the sight of Uncle Tom making her some breakfast. She'd stayed with him ever since.

The onset of foggy clouds covering the track caused her to shake her head and try to clear it. Terra couldn't afford to be distracted, not here. Scarcely had that thought crossed her mind did she swerve to the side to dodge the green and black vehicle that rushed out of the fog to pass her, failing to adjust its course in time to ram into Welded like it had originally intended. Those must have been the Racing Drones that Kadeem, Lani, and Gig had mentioned.

Sighing she readjusted her car so that she was back in the middle of the road once more. The lightning grew a bit more intense as she made it out of the foggy area, just in time to see Monkey's car get vaporized by a stray EMP shot. Before she could slow down to pick him up, however, Wylde went rushing past her, and the driver's seat from Rolling Thunder got caught on the edge of Spine Buster.

Honestly, Terra pitied the teen. Wylde wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, and he had one mean temper. Spending half a Realm in his company wasn't something she'd personally want to do. The girl sighed, moving over into the adjacent lane to dodge the seat that went flying down the track only a few moments after Monkey scrambled into the car.

They then went whizzing past a car that was parked in the middle of the road, something that Terra suspected was Wylde's idea and not Monkey. The car happened to be Taro's, after all, and Monkey wasn't the type to abandon his teammates.

Her brother, sorry, half-brother's car wasn't in good shape. From the looks of the vehicle and the driver, added with the smell of burnt metal and charred flesh, it was easy to tell what had happened. Taro had been hit by lightning, frying the engine in the Roadrunner and knocking him out. He'd have some nasty burns when he came to, not to mention any other injuries sustained during the whole event.

If Terra had been a spiteful person, she'd have left them there. And, truth to be told, for a moment she did debate doing that. But eventually she sighed and pulled Welded to a stop, crying out in pain as a smaller bolt of lightning licked the side of her vehicle. It burned, worse than fire, and the shock that ran through her threatened to stop her heart. Thankfully it didn't, but Terra could clearly see bright red burned areas on her hands. Judging from the pain in her legs, they had gotten burned as well.

But the girl was used to pain by this point, and so awkwardly climbed out of her vehicle and began to hook their cars together with a cable. When she was finished, she checked the engine, hoping that some miracle had happened and her engine hadn't been fired to a crisp. Everything looked good, although she would definitely need to make repairs when she got out. If she got out.

Terra instantly pushed those thoughts out of her head. She had to get out of the Realms. Failure wasn't an option here, and Terra wasn't planning on failing now.

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	10. Recruiting Help

**Chapter 10: Recruiting Help**

Lani breathed a sigh of relief as Vert just barely made it through the portal in time.

"I believe that's called cutting it close." Gig stated flatly as he watched the wormhole shut with a brilliant flash of light.

"I don't think now is the time to be making puns," Lani replied somewhat icily. "I would assume that there are injured down there, and I need to go treat them."

The girl didn't wait for an answer to her question, instead choosing to rush out of the door and down the steps. Judging from the smell, and the worried faces of Talia and Verity as they clustered around Terra's trainwreck of a car, she had gotten hit by lightning. It was only then that she noticed that Terra had hauled Taro out of the Realm. He must have been injured as well - the front end of his Roadrunner was all crumpled.

She arrived down at the scene just in time to catch the tail end of an argument concerning whether or not the drivers should enter the Storm Realm once more to rescue him. Lani winced as she noticed Gig float forward, already guessing what he was about to say.

"The Storm Realm can't be reopened." Gig informed the assembled group. "The Wheel has never opened a Realm again after it has closed."

Predictably, Kurt and Vert were quite angry at that statement. Wylde was as well, although not to the point that the two male members of the Teku were. Karma appeared to be indifferent, the Metal Teku were still concerning themselves with Terra, and even if Taro had an opinion on the matter he wasn't exactly awake to voice it. Monkey, however, was the only one that appeared relieved over not having to race through the storm again.

"Great, because one Realm's enough for me." He said decisively. "I want out of this deal. We're not getting paid, we're risking our necks-"

"Typical Metal Maniac." Kurt scoffed as he limped over to the general group. "The Teku aren't afraid to try again."

"Ah, scrap the Teku! Metal Maniacs do whatever we want!" Monkey now acted scornful, not willing to let on that Kurt was right about him being afraid. "Right, Wylde?"

"Nobody scares Wylde away from a race," Markie replied. It was rare for both of the Wylde brothers to agree on something, and Monkey looked at him in disbelief, barely noticing that Lani had driven up in an ambulance and was currently loading Taro into it. Ordering Terra to come to the infirmary as soon as possible, the Hawaiian got into her car and drove off into the rather cavernous base.

"What?" The jumpy ginger practically cried in disbelief. "You want to go back in there? Why?"

"We're drivers," Terra muttered as she worked on separating her vehicle from Taro's so she could move it into the garage that her teammates had commandeered as their base of operations. "What's the point of being a racer when you run from a race because of a loss or a crash? If you're that scared of defeat, you might as well just not drive in the first place."

"But look at what those Drone dudes did to us!" Now the teen was fervently protesting the decision to stay, wanting to get out of danger as soon as possible."

"Look what they did to me." The unfamiliar voice cut through the air, halting the growing tension. Looking skywards, the group of racers caught sight of a greying man standing on the walkway. He was clad in a modified purple racing suit, and his eyes were hidden behind mirrored glasses. Curiously, his entire body was encased in some sort of metal support suit.

"We have work to do." He stated, before turning to walk away. It was clear he thought that the matter of the drivers staying was settled.

"So, that's the guy that brought our team together," Verity muttered after he had vanished through the doors to the control room. Terra nodded once before wincing. Her burns were really getting quite painful and would need treatment as soon as possible. Noticing this, her African American teammate quickly told her to not worry about moving Welded, and to head off to the infirmary as soon as possible; an order that Terra had no trouble following.

"So, what do you think?" Talia asked as the two began to maneuver the car into the garage, parking it next to TechTyte and Back Alley.

"I think we're going to need Aurora and Gale," Verity replied. "I'll call our crazy friend, do you mind asking Gale to come on out here?"

"Not at all," Talia replied. "Just let me rip the coordinates of this joint from my car, and I'll be all set."

* * *

Kurt sat in his room, the crutches that Lani had given him leaning up against the wall. He had twisted an ankle in the Storm Realm, and right now it hurt to put pressure on the injury. Hobbling around was awkward, but it was better than doing something to damage his limb any further.

Right now he was busy dialing Nolo. Kurt knew that Tezla would hate him for going behind his back - the man didn't want news of what was going on leaking out to the rest of the world - but right now the man could care less. They needed help, and Tezla would be too stubborn to realize it.

Nolo answered on the fourth ring and wasted no time in getting straight to the point.

"You better have a very good reason for running off two nights ago." He said in a frosty tone.

"Hello to you too, Nolo," Kurt replied with a sigh. "How are your injuries doing?"

"I've gotten several bruises and sprained an ankle and a wrist, but nothing was broken." Came the response. "You're avoiding my question. Why'd you leave?"

"I'm going to preface this by saying what I am about to tell you will sound totally illogical, improbable, or otherwise absolutely unrealistic; and I wish to inform you right now that I am neither drunk nor high," Kurt said before the whole story came out. Surprisingly, Nolo was quiet and let him talk, until his teammate finally finished speaking.

"Look, it's not that I don't want to believe you, but aliens, alternate dimensions, and killer robots exist in science fiction, not the real world." At least Nolo didn't sound to upset over the story.

"Funny, that's pretty much what your sister said," Kurt replied absently. He could almost see Nolo bolt upright at those words.

"Talia's there?" He sounded excited, a bit hopeful even.

"Yeah, she was one of the racers that got invited." He replied. "I think she found one of Tone's car plans, her vehicle looks almost exactly like Synkro. So, are you and Shirako coming, or not?"

"Tell me where you are, and we'll be there as soon as we finish fixing Synkro."

* * *

Tork frowned as he put down the phone. Monkey sounded scared out of his wits, though the man was a bit uncertain about the whole aliens and alternate dimension concept the mechanic was trying to explain to him. It just sounded unrealistic. Nonetheless, though, Tork believed him. As jumpy as Monkey was, nothing on this earth could scare him away from a race.

It was obvious that he was going to go to the Acceledrome, although he wasn't going to go there to take Monkey home. No one, man or machine, messed with his teammates and got away with it. No one. Monkey didn't say much, but from what it sounded like Taro had been injured pretty badly, and two vehicles had gotten completely wrecked. He'd have to get Pork Chop to load up Monkey's spare car along with Rivited and Jack Hammer onto Old Smokey before they headed out.

The African American was certain that the southerner would come once he heard what had happened. He was Monkey's best friend and didn't like seeing the teen scared out of his wits. All it would take was one phone call, and the last of Tork's teammates would be on his way back to the city, ready to go and make the Drones pay.

But then there was the other reason: his sister. Monkey had mentioned that she was at the Acceledrome, along with girls named Talia and Terra. Tork didn't know who Terra was, but he knew Talia. How could he not, he had pulled her out of a blizzard. The girl had practically become part of his family while she lived with them for a few years. It would be good to see both of them again.

His mind made up, the man began to dial Pork Chop's number. He had a race to get to, and the sooner he got there, the better.

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	11. Sibling Rivalry

**Chapter 11: Sibling Rivalry**

Three days later, the drivers were in their various garages, working on their cars. The Metal Teku had mostly stuck to themselves, while the Teku and the Metal Maniacs acted as if their rivals had the plague.

Vert had almost finished construction work on a new vehicle he called Power Rage, and Kurt similarly was working on a car he called Battle Spec. In fact, right now he was busy applying a few small details to the paint job as it was on the lift. That turned out to not be the smartest idea in the world, however, as when he went to stand up he hit his head on the chassis of the car. Monkey, who was perched on one of the hydraulic lifts in the Metal Maniac's garage, had a good view of the incident. He laughed, and Wylde joined in.

"Kurt, you're pushing yourself too hard," Lani said. "You're just as bad as Terra."

Terra ignored that comment as she worked on welding more metal scraps to Welded. Hopefully the new additions would make the car a bit more stable. She had refused to stay in the infirmary for a while, choosing instead to bandage her injuries after slathering them with some medication and returned to working on her car almost instantly.

"The next Racing Realm could open at any time," Tezla told her quietly. "They have to be ready for it."

"But if the cars aren't fixed, maybe they could just skip it." Lani retorted.

"It's not that simple, Lani." Tezla murmured. "If they skip the Realms, the Drones will only get more powerful."

Lani sighed before some kind of faint music began to permeate the air in the Acceledrome. She wasn't the only one to hear it, as Monkey had noticed it as well.

"Hey, does anyone else hear music?" He asked, hopping down off of the hydraulic lift he had been sitting on for the past half an hour. "That must be my ride! I got in touch with Tork. Yes, I told him what happened."

With that, the mechanic walked towards the entrance, no doubt waiting for his ride to come and whisk him away. Markie, however, frowned as he stopped what he was doing and listened to the music. It was steadily growing louder, and it sounded quite similar to the music that shrimp on the Teku liked to play.

"That's no Metal Maniac." He muttered. Karma, Vert, and Kurt had heard the music too, and the only female of the group grinned when the electronic beats drifted into the garage.

"That sounds like Shirako," Vert said, taking off towards the ramp that lead outside. Karma was right behind him, while Kurt limped after the pair on his crutches. Markie and Monkey had already made it to the entrance as well, and the three girls from the Metal Teku had joined the congregation as well. Now the music was louder, and Kurt frowned.

"I don't think it's Shirako." He said. "It sounds way different from the music he listens to."

Before anyone else could say anything a car burst into the Acceledrome. It was a sleek white craft that looked an awful lot like Power Rage. It's windows and hubcaps were tinted dark blue, and the words "Metal Teku" on the side appeared to be done in such a way to make it look like graffiti. It pulled to a stop near the Teku, and then the door flew open.

"Greenie!"

The next thing anyone knew, a blue and white blur zoomed out of the car and tackled Vert, who let out a cry of shock and outrage. The bundle of limbs kicked up dust as it came to a stop, and it took a few moments for the two people to untangle themselves. Vert looked rather annoyed as he rubbed the black eye that was forming after his assailant had accidentally jabbed him with her elbow.

The other one was a girl about the age of sixteen, wearing blue and white. A shock of blonde hair covered her head, and her crystal blue eyes were full of joy and mirth. She appeared to be in a good mood, as she was currently laughing her head off.

"Oh man, oh man, you should totally see the look on your face, Greenie." She snickered. "It's priceless!"

"For the hundred thousandth time, Aurora, my name isn't Greenie, it's Vert!" Vert snapped. Aurora, as the girl apparently was called, sat up.

"More like for the gazillionth time, Greenie!" She retorted, a wide smile on her face.

"Aurora, stop calling me Greenie." Vert sounded a bit like he was sulking. Judging from the fact that Wylde and Monkey were laughing under their breath at him, he probably was.

"But why?" Aurora looked innocent now. "Vert's French for green, Greenie. It's a perfectly logical nickname."

"But I hate it. And besides, my name's not Greenie, it's Vert."

"You keep telling yourself that, Greenie."

Before the endless argument could get any further a second vehicle entered the Acceledrome, much to the annoyance of Tezla. This one was a white Chevy Avalanche with a twelve speaker set in the truck bed, pumping electronic music into the air. It was loud, extremely loud, and privately the Metal Maniacs were thankful that Pork Chop wasn't here.

The driver parked this car next to Aurora's before climbing out, thankfully shutting off her music. A few of the drivers stared at her in shock. If Aurora was almost identical to Vert, this girl was the spitting image of Shirako; right down to the blue-black hair, three layers of clothing, and the headphones on her head. She didn't say much, just casually strolled over to lean up against the wall next to Terra.

Tezla looked, for lack of a better word, furious. He didn't want others to come, just the ones that Gig had delivered his message too. Before he could open his mouth, however, and say anything about it, two more cars pulled in. It was Synkro and Bassline, and their drivers quickly got out.

Nolo flinched when he noticed the glare that Talia was giving him, noting with a touch of disbelief that there was a girl who looked just like Tork standing right next to his sister. If looks could kill, Talia's would have incinerated him on the spot.

Shirako, on the other hand, had caught sight of the girl with the headphones and was staring at her in puzzlement. She looked somewhat familiar, but he couldn't place the face. This seemed to amuse her, for she smiled at him and jerked her thumb at the Chevy Avalanche. The Asian American Teku looked at it in confusion, before noticing the twelve speaker set in the back. A look of jealousy crossed his face for a moment before finally, he realized who the girl was.

"Aw, dude, that is one wicked sound system." He muttered as his sister drifted over to stand next to him, lightly punching him in the shoulder.

"Forget it, bro, I'm not forking it over." She replied.

"Gale, I didn't even ask for it." Shirako protested.

"Knowing you, you were going to." Gale laughed, ignoring the strange looks she was getting from the Teku. No doubt they weren't a hundred percent certain as to who she was, but that was okay. They'd learn not to mess with her soon enough.

Tezla's anger blew past the boiling point, and he was now glaring at Monkey.

"You had no right to reveal the location of the Acceledrome." He snapped.

"Hey, hey, I don't talk to Teku. You can scrap that right there, man." Monkey's voice held an irate tone, as he didn't like being accused of something he hadn't done.

"I called Nolo and Shirako." Kurt interrupted as he limped over to the group. "Because we need help."

"And as for Gale and Aurora, we called them," Terra spoke up from where she was leaning up against the wall, her quiet voice somehow audible over the angry shouts coming from the old man. "Since you're the whole reason why our team got started, it's a bit hypocritical to only want some of us, and not everyone. We were good enough for you a year ago, why not now?"

"Listen, what we are doing here is top secret." Tezla hissed, choosing to ignore Terra's words. The girl was, after all, correct, and he didn't have a good answer to the challenge in her voice.

"Why?" Kurt challenged. "Who're you afraid of?"

"The Drones." The older man said quietly after a long moment, showing that perhaps he wasn't being completely truthful about his fears.

"The Drones are finished." Nolo sounded confident as he spoke. "Nobody beats the Teku."

"You mean nobody but the Metal Maniacs." Wylde corrected.

"Yeah right, like the two of you could even dream of keeping up with any of us Metal Teku." Talia scoffed. Nolo glanced over at her, not wanting to get into yet another fight with her. He then, instead, chose to focus on Wylde, though in truth his words were also somewhat directed at his sister.

"I mean nobody." Wylde snorted at that remark. The kid had guts, he'd give him that much.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." He retorted before Monkey let out an unexpected cheer as another car pulled in.

"That's my ride!" He said happily as he darted over to the vehicle, greeting the burly African American as he climbed out of it. "Hey, let's get out of here, Tork!"

"After what the Drones did to you and Taro? No way." He replied, causing Monkey to pale.

"But that's the idea of leaving, Tork." He pleaded. "So it doesn't happen again."

"Nobody does this to my guys. We're welded, remember." His leader replied.

"Why don't you and the rest of you Maniac scum go back to the scrapheap?" Nolo demanded.

"Watch it punk," Tork warned. He didn't mind it so much that Nolo was mad at him - by now he had unfortunately gotten used to it - but talking trash about his teammates was a different story.

"You know, having all of the terrible drivers leave isn't that bad of an idea." Talia mused. "Why don't you do us all a favor Nolo, get into that hunk of junk you call a car and remove yourself from the premises?"

Nolo winced slightly as if the girl had physically slapped him, but quickly readopted his angry facade. Tezla groaned and walked back towards his lab, accepting that no one was going to be leaving anytime soon, and Lani walked back to the medical bay to check on Taro, beckoning for Terra to follow her so that her injuries could be reexamined to see how they were healing up.

It was a rather tense moment, as Tork and Nolo looked to be seconds away from blows. Verity laid a cautionary hand on her co-leader's shoulder, ready to restrain her if Talia chose to try and join in on a fight. The younger Maddox need not have worried, however, as everyone's attention was suddenly drawn to the blast of a horn. It sounded like it was from a big rig, and as they were in the desert, it was totally unexpected.

"Is that…" Monkey trailed off as he picked himself off of the floor. Tork had brushed past him when he moved to confront Nolo, inadvertently causing his younger teammate to fall to the ground. "No, it couldn't be. He said he'd be gone for months."

There was a cacophony of sound as a big eighteen wheeler broke through the back door into the Acceledrome, Talia flinching as she recalled her own nasty experience being run over by one. It pulled to a stop, revealing that it had three cars strung up on its bed. One was recognizable as Rolling Thunder, but the other two were unfamiliar.

Tezla, Lani, and Terra heard the noise and rushed back out to the Acceledrome to make sure nothing was wrong. To the shock and dismay of the former, and the amazement of the latter two, the door was completely gone and a giant truck was sitting there.

"You really didn't have to come, Pork Cho-ah!" Monkey's words of excitement transitioned into a rather undignified yelp as Pork Chop grabbed him by the strap of his bag of tools and literally hoisted him up into the air.

* * *

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	12. How to Anger a Metal Maniac

**Chapter 12: How to Anger a Metal Maniac**

"Alright!" Pork Chop bellowed, ignoring his friend's strangled cries. "Who did this to you? They're going to pay, do you hear me?"

The group looked at him strangely, no doubt wondering just what on earth he was trying to prove by shouting and making declarations. Well, all of the group aside from Gale and Shirako. The elder Takamoto was gleefully whispering something to his sister, causing a devilish grin to cross her face. No one noticed as they each pressed a button on the control panels they wore on their wrists.

Everyone, however, noticed when five seconds later electronic music started blasting out of Bassline and Bass Vortex. The reactions were instantaneous. Tezla, Lani, and the Metal Maniacs all covered their ears; Pork Chop dropping Monkey in the process. The Teku and the Metal Teku both winced, though they put on the outward appearance of being fine. As for Gale and Shirako, they were laughing their heads off. It was quite strange to see either one of the normally quiet Asian Americans so animated, but the drivers had more pressing things to worry about.

The most notable of them was the music. To say it was loud would have been a gross understatement. They could literally feel the floor vibrating, those same vibrations emanating up into their bodies. It rattled their eyes in their sockets and toppled over some smaller stacks of boxes.

It wasn't until Pork Chop stormed over and lifted Shirako up by his collar - he'd never do that to Gale, as angry as she'd probably make him - that there was a hope of stopping it. Pork Chop did have some things he wouldn't do, and hurting a girl was one of them. Unless, of course, she was physically assaulting him, but Gale wasn't exactly doing that.

"Turn the noise down, Stinku." He snarled. "Now."

Shirako laughed and cranked it up a few notches for a brief moment, grinning at the sight of Pork Chop growing red in the face. It was only then that he took pity on the man and shut his music off, Gale following suit.

"I hate you." Pork Chop grumbled, glaring at Shirako. The boy laughed again.

"Aw, dude, you and I both know that if you did I'd have been in the hospital several times by this point." He pointed out.

Lani and Terra sighed as Pork Chop began screaming again before the duo once more headed to the infirmary. Terra lightly rubbed her forehead as they made their way towards the medical wing. She could feel a killer headache building from the sheer volume of music, which meant she'd probably need to sleep it off. Either that or take some ibuprofen, one or the other.

To their surprise, Taro was groggily sitting up when they arrived. It was clear that the noise had awakened him.

"What on earth was that?" He inquired, no doubt referencing the pounding music that had shattered his slumber.

"Shirako," Lani said, figuring that would be a sufficient explanation.

"Gale." Terra groaned out, adding to the explanation. Seeing the look of confusion on Taro's face, she quickly elaborated. "Shirako's sister. Her truck, Bass Vortex, has a twelve speaker set in the back."

"Well, that explains why Pork Chop's so irritated," Taro muttered, listening to the still audible shouts that were echoing from the main garage.

"Whether he's irritated or not doesn't matter," Terra grumbled as she began unwinding the bandages from her hands. "Something tells me we aren't leaving here until all this business with the Realms is finished, so he'd better get used to it since I know Gale isn't going to just stop playing her music because he finds it annoying."

Well, apparently she was in a bad mood. Headaches could do that to people. It was hard to be pleasant when it felt like someone was poking your brain with a spear. Lani, sensing the girl's apparent unhappiness, quickly checked her wounds before telling her in no uncertain terms that she looked absolutely exhausted and should get some rest. Surprisingly, the younger Kitano agreed, but her apparent willingness to go take a nap soured when Lani told her to stay in the infirmary.

The two argued back and forth about it until Lani finally put her foot down and informed her that there was still a possibility for complications from her injuries to develop, and if they did she didn't want to have to haul her out of her room to the infirmary to treat her. Realizing that she wasn't going to win this argument, Terra begrudgingly obliged her and lay down on one of the half a dozen or so beds in the medical bay. Within minutes she appeared to be out like a light, almost as if she was a machine that had been powered down.

"That went a lot smoother than I thought it would," Lani said as she moved over to begin checking Taro's wounds. It was a bit awkward for her, but she pushed that notion aside. "Out of curiosity, though, who is she? I mean, she looks just like you, Taro."

"I don't know." That honest statement was enough to make the Hawaiian stare at the elder Kitano in shock. Taro rarely admitted that he didn't know stuff, so for him to readily say it was a bit disconcerting.

"You don't?" She blurted out quietly. Taro shook his head.

"Not for certain." He admitted as Lani slipped a brace on over his arm. "I told you about my father's infidelity, right?"

"Yes, you did mention it a few times." Lani could recall the story almost perfectly.

"I think that perhaps she's one of the results of it." He explained. "The affair happened about seventeen years ago, and from what I can tell Terra's about that age. It's the only way I can explain her uncanny resemblance to my father."

"If you two are done talking about me behind my back instead of just asking me who I am, I'd appreciate it if you could please be a bit quieter." Terra sounded a bit grumpy as she cracked open an eye, a peeved look on her face, catching the embarrassed look on Lani's face and the impassive one on Taro's.

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	13. Swamp Realm Bound

**Chapter 13: Swamp Realm Bound**

A tense three days passed. Nolo was still mad at Tork, and Aurora was busy pestering Vert. Pork Chop now had to deal with both Gale and Shirako tormenting him. The other day they had managed to sneak into his room in the middle of the night, set up a huge speaker system, and woke him up at three in the morning by blasting electronic music at a rather high volume. Dr. Tezla hadn't been too happy about that, and to make a very long story short Gale and Shirako were no longer allowed to play their music loudly between 9 PM and 8 AM unless they were in their recently semi-soundproofed rooms.

Aurora had also broken into Vert's room, choosing to scribble on his face using a permanent marker. If one looked closely, they would still be able to make out the outline of bright green shamrocks, four leaf clovers, and the words for green in twenty different languages written all over his face, neck, and arms. It was rather amusing to see him the next morning.

Talia was openly hostile towards Nolo, publicly stating a few times that she would be extremely happy if he left or died. It usually wasn't stated that nicely, oftentimes being paired with several Spanish curses and derogatory terms. She hadn't done anything to openly fight him yet, keeping her promise to Verity. That, however, would soon change.

"You're friends with that Maniac's sister?" Nolo demanded as he stormed over to the Metal Teku's table in the dining hall. It was rather late, and the drivers were eating dinner. More than one of them wondered how it hadn't clicked in Nolo's head that there was a reason Verity and Tork looked so much alike.

"Not only am I friends with her, I lead a racing team with her. What're you going to do about it?" Talia snapped.

"He killed Tone." Nolo protested.

"Tone deserved it." Talia shot back.

"Tork's a murder." That was as far as Nolo got with that statement before Talia drew back and punched him in the face. Nolo winced and raised a hand to his rapidly swelling eye, while the rest of the room looked over at the two in shock. They had ignored the sibling's near-constant arguments, but the sound of flesh striking flesh drew their attention.

"Tork's more of a brother to me than you and Tone ever were," Talia said darkly, causing her brother to flinch as if he had been struck once more.

Before more words could be said, Verity reached out and grabbed a hold of Talia's wrist, preventing her from getting in another blow. The African American opened her mouth to chastise her companion, but the ringing of the alarms interrupted her.

"A new Realm must be opening." Karma murmured, causing Monkey's stomach to drop.

"Eh heh, I think I'll sit this one out." He said nervously, only for Pork Chop to laugh and yank him to his feet.

"C'mon Monkey-Man." He chuckled as he dragged his terrified friend out of the room. "Let's go make those Drones pay."

It was a rather unorthodox way to get someone into the Realms, but Pork Chop was almost never orthodox. Monkey protested all the way to the garage, only to be tossed into Jack Hammer. The rest of the drivers were close behind, Verity and Tork carefully watching Talia to make sure that she wasn't going to start attacking her brother once more. Kurt, of course, was last since he was on crutches. Unfortunately, Lani was waiting for him and began to tell him he wasn't allowed to race. Kurt steadfastly ignored her fervent protests.

"Are you absolutely certain that this is safe?" Nolo asked suspiciously. Sure, he had been briefed on all this stuff, but it was still a bit nerve-wracking to watch the portal just appear out of nowhere.

"Um, let me see here…" Kurt replied as he awkwardly climbed into Battle Spec. "No, probably not."

"But on the bright side, these Realms are pretty awesome," Vert added as he entered Power Rage, scowling at the bright green shamrock that Aurora had obviously taped to his steering wheel.

"Kurt, you can't race," Lani argued as the man reached for the stick shift, grunting in pain. "For heaven's sake, you're on crutches! You can barely walk!"

"Who's walking?" Kurt asked innocently before shifting gears and speeding forward. Lani rolled her eyes before the rumblings of two more engines caught her attention. Sure enough, Taro had gotten into Rivited, while Terra was in Welded. The former was running a few checks on his vehicle, while the latter was revving the engine a few times. Almost as if they could sense her looking at them, they glanced up. The near identical looks on their faces almost dared her to argue about them going. Then they were off, joining Kurt, Vert, and Wylde.

"Don't worry, Kurt and Vert are just pulling your leg," Karma reassured her leader as she started up Chicane.

"But if you're too scared to go, we won't miss you." Talia sneered as she passed by them, leading the Metal Teku onto the track. Verity, however, paused and rolled down her window.

"Just a word of friendly advice." She said kindly. "I'd avoid your sister in the Realm. With how mad she is at you, she could very well try and run you off the road."

With that, she drove off. Nolo and Shirako looked at each other, dimly aware that Tork and Pork Chop had finally started up their cars. This whole thing really didn't sound feasible still, but if Karma and Taro believed it was true, then it had to be. They too climbed into their own cars and sped off toward the track, just as the others hit the portal.

Pork Chop, however, wasn't really watching where he was going. His car struck Karma's; it was only a glancing blow, but it sent her spinning out into a large stack of tires. They fell onto her car, shattering the windshield.

"Maniac." She muttered in irritation as she drove her car back to the garage. She wanted to race, not watch a race. Up above, Pork Chop accelerated to 170 miles an hour, the number rising rapidly. He whooped with excitement, already loving the race. Monkey, however, was less than thrilled with his current predicament.

"You don't even have to stop, Pork Chop!" He pleaded, desperation tainting his voice. "Just slow down, I'll jump!"

"Yee-haw!" The burly southerner hollered, ignoring his friend completely. "I love this job! Hah-hah-hah!" He pushed the gas pedal down even further, if that was even possible, speeding up until he was almost touching Shirako's bumper.

The portal was coming up, and the accelerator right at the end gave the cars one last burst of speed, forcing the drivers' heads back into the seat due to the sudden acceleration. The jump to seemingly nowhere was looming ahead, closer and closer. Then they were sailing through the air, and a shroud of white light surrounded the cars. There was a strange distortion of sound, and suddenly they were no longer on Earth.

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	14. Swamp Realm(part 1)

**Chapter 14: Swamp Realm (part 1)**

There was a crackling sound, a hissing like broken lightning, and then suddenly a blue rent tore the fabric of the dimensions as it forced its way into existence. For a moment it was just there, simply existing, and seemed to serve no distinct purpose.

Five seconds later, first one, then two, then a multitude of vehicles were spat out of the gaping maw that led from the portal. It was Tezla's not so merry band of racers. Vert was in the lead, having managed to push his way past the others in the dimensional portal, and was a bit startled to see his car flying through trees. He looked around, a bit panicked.

"Hey Greenie, this Realm's almost as green as you are!" Aurora laughed, causing the surfer to groan. Gale was right behind him and was busily observing her new surroundings, an action that the majority of the other drivers were also doing. More than one of them were left awestruck by the sight of massive trees, humongous hanging vines, and giant plants. It was not a noisy or chaotic Realm, a way in which it differed from the Storm Realm. Instead, there was a quiet hum of background noise created by the sounds of the jungle; although the Takamoto siblings quickly let their music invade the air. Pork Chop groaned and shook his fist at Bassline, causing Shirako to laugh.

"So, what exactly is the plan?" Terra inquired as the group touched down on the track. It was clear that the girl was focused on the best way to win.

"Yeah, if we're going to win we'll need to do something other than rush in blind," Aurora added. "Right, Greenie?"

Vert's sighed rather audibly, creating a hiss of static over the radio. Aurora giggled in response.

"In all seriousness, though, we do need a plan." Taro eventually said, somehow managing to restore order.

"Yo Tezla, got any bright ideas?" Shirako inquired as the continued down the track, slipping a bit on some of the mossy creepers that had started to cover the orange surface. Tork shrugged as he passed both Nolo and Talia. The former tried to slip around his sister, only for the Latina to sideswipe him and cause the elder Pasero to fall back a few places. Tork ignored the feud for the time being, and instead looked to the track ahead of them, noticing the branching pathways.

"Hey, which track are we supposed to take?" He inquired. There was what sounded like a muffled conversation that came from the Acceledrome in response to the African American's question, and Kurt frowned as he thought he heard Lani snap at Tezla, and Gig mentioned something about the last time something led to nowhere. It only heightened his suspicions of the man.

"This is Dr. Tezla." The old man eventually said, ignoring the eye rolls and sighs from the drivers as he stated the blatantly obvious. "We think you should split up."

"Okay," Nolo said with a shrug. "Teku, we're splitting up. Stay online."

"Let's move some metal, Maniacs." Tork murmured.

"Alright girls, pick a track, any track," Talia announced.

"Stay online, and we'll see you in the real world," Verity added as the group began to split up, each racer choosing their own track in the hopes that it would take them to the end of the Realm. "Be careful. And yes, that includes you too, Talia."

"I'm always careful." Her co-leader retorted as she took a turn a little faster and sharper than what was necessary. She also made certain that her tires squealed loudly enough for Verity to hear them over the radio. The younger Maddox groaned and rolled her eyes, silently wondering why Talia had to show off so much.

* * *

Through pure dumb luck, Talia ended up heading down the path that was right next to Nolo's, and occasionally the girl caught a glimpse of the orange vehicle flashing through the trees. TechTyte managed to blend into its surroundings a lot better than Synkro since it was painted a deep emerald green. Nolo probably wasn't even aware of the fact that his sister was right near him. Now would be the perfect chance to get some good old-fashioned revenge. It would be so easy to transfer over to the next track using the jump jets in her car and send Nolo crashing to the swampy murk below.

In Talia's eyes, the boy deserved it. Both Nolo and Tone had left when she was nine, leaving her to the mercy of a mother tormented by grief. She could still recall the exact day almost perfectly, walking out of the house to see Nolo and Tone packing suitcases into Synkro.

The girl had wanted to know what they were doing, and instantly had wanted to come with them when Nolo had claimed they were going out for a drive. Looking back on it, Talia realized she had to have been foolishly naive to have not picked up on the hesitancy in Nolo's voice, and how he had phrased his answer as a question, rather than a statement.

She had only grown suspicious when she had begged to accompany them, only for Tone to ignore her puppy dog eyes and order Nolo to get into the car. The middle child had shrugged but gave his sister a hug and a goodbye filled with forced cheeriness before climbing into Synkro. That was when Talia had gotten confused. Nolo wasn't one to show affection in public, and last time the girl checked the driveway was considered to be out in public.

And then the bomb dropped. Tone cruelly told her that they weren't coming back and that she wasn't allowed to go with them. They were leaving for good, striking out on their own. Her eldest brother had claimed it was due to the fact that their father had died and their mother wasn't able to support three kids. Tone and Nolo were, therefore, leaving to lighten their mother's burdens a bit.

When Talia refused to listen, Tone had lashed out and told her that her place was in the home helping out with chores and that he was sick of how she acted. Talia had been such a girly girl back then - a lover of fancy outfits that she would flounce around the house in, and a true romantic at heart. When she had heard this, it crushed her. Tone then simply left her sniveling on the sidewalk as the two brothers drove away.

It was then that Talia felt betrayed. Feelings of abandonment set in a few days later, and then during the blizzard, the first thoughts of revenge crept into her head. What Talia was unaware of was that Tone had lied to her. He hated saying those cruel untruths, knowing that they would hurt the young girl. But he felt as if he had no choice, and that there was no other way to get the girl to stay with their only surviving parent.

Recalling this, Talia could feel her blood boil. Her life had gone downhill ever since her two so-called brothers left, and it was all their fault. Her finger hovered over the button to activate her jump jets. It would be so easy to get revenge.

No, she couldn't. Talia had promised Verity to do her best to not physically fight her brother. Besides, a quick death was too good for him. Talia wanted her former sibling to suffer for years, just like she had.

Her mind made up, the Latina forced herself to ignore the occasional flash of orange that tormented her through the jungle. It was good that she had done so, for a giant fist soon came crashing down onto the track. A few giant plant-like monsters had apparently decided to play whack-a-car with her, and she was the prime target. It was better to drive now and think about her revenge later, the girl decided, speeding up to dodge another fist. After all, being turned into a human pancake was not high on her to do list.

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	15. Swamp Realm (part 2)

**Chapter 15: Swamp Realm (part 2)**

Tork glanced over to the side, smiling as he noticed Verity pull up next to him. It was good to see his sister again, especially since she seemed to be doing well. Talia was a bit more worrying. It saddened the leader of the Metal Maniacs to see that she hadn't yet lost her thirst for revenge.

If the man was being honest with herself, it was a bit disconcerting to see the same level of rage that Nolo directed towards him being directed at Nolo himself from someone else.

Verity, almost as if sensing his thoughts, shook her head. The girl was right, Tork realized. There was a time and place to worry about this, but it wasn't right now. He'd work on trying to get Talia to be a bit nicer to Nolo later. For now, they had to focus on getting out of the Realm in one piece.

A flash of green drew their attention, and for a moment Verity thought that Talia had ended up on the same track that the two Maddox siblings were on. She breathed a quick sigh of relief, knowing that the girl was far away from the brother that she hated so much. That relief quickly turned to suspicion, though, as she got a better look at the vehicle that was following them.

First of all, it was not one vehicle, but several cars that were on the track chasing after the siblings. They were green and black monstrosities, definitely not TechTyte. Tork's eyes narrowed as he stared at the strange cars in his rather beat up rearview mirror.

"Those have to be the Drones that Tezla was talking about." He said aloud. "They match the description Taro, Wylde, and Monkey gave me."

"I guess they want to try and shut us down." Verity deduced as they began to launch

"Well let's not give them a chance to do that, then," Tork replied as he drifted to the side of the track, allowing an EMP bullet to go flying past his car. He smiled, only to pale as a roaring, howling sound filled his ears. In her own car, Verity turned as white as a sheet and jumped about a foot, allowing a soft squeak to escape her.

"What was that?" She demanded. The Realm would soon answer, as the giant viny plants surrounding them began to unfurl, revealing some vicious-looking claws. Said claws immediately began to reach for the moving vehicles, not seeming to care that some were only driven by machines, while the rest of them were piloted by humans.

Tork and Verity managed to make it through the veritable gauntlet unscathed. The Drones behind them weren't as lucky. Several of them got caught, and the claws began to squeeze them. Metal creaked and groaned as the metal drivers looked around, trying to process what had happened.

Further down the track, one of its compatriots exploded as the pressure the claw was putting on it increased. The vine-like monster was blown to bits in the ensuing explosion, the first Drone watching it with interest and perhaps a bit of dread. Deciding that it would not be efficiently destroyed like a fly in a trap, it pulled out an Accelecharger. With no hesitation, it inserted the strange microchip into the scanner, its vehicle reading the information embedded in it.

Verity and Tork watched as a cyan glow flashed over the car before the Drone vanished. It reappeared on the track a moment later and wasted no time in speeding after them, while the vine appeared to look around as if it was wondering where its prey had run off to.

* * *

"Aw man, I really didn't want to come in here." Monkey muttered to himself, still hyperventilating slightly. In the driver's seat, Pork Chop merely chuckled. He didn't want to race without his best friend now, and besides the Realms were fun. He honestly didn't see what Monkey's problem was with them.

Monkey, for his part, tried to calm down and take a look around the Realm. Right not he wanted to get out of there, and the only way he was going to get out was if the two Metal Maniacs made it to the end. In Monkey's eyes, that meant that they should get there as quickly as possible, which meant taking the easy route.

"Heh, it looks pretty good across the water, Pork Chop." Monkey pointed out. "It looks clear."

The burly southerner glanced in that direction, looking at the water with a touch of fear. That was the one part of the Realm that wasn't fun, the water. The jumpy mechanic in the car with him did not notice the look of fear on his friend's face, however, and kept on urging him to go on the easy path. Pork Chop didn't listen, instead hitting the gas and continuing on into the jungle.

"What are you doing, Pork Chop?" Monkey cried out in frustration. "The other way was easier!"

"Bah, who needs easy?" Pork Chop demanded, ignoring Monkey's muttered exclamation that he did. The redhead chose to pretend that he didn't hear that remark and concentrated on his driving. He had a race to win, and listening to Monkey freak out wasn't going to get him into first place.

Both of the drivers were so preoccupied with their current situation, however, that they failed to notice the partially sunken green car in the middle of the lake. Moss and vines had started to grow on it, and pond scum ringed the part that broke the surface. To any of the drivers from the World Race, it would have instantly been recognizable as Balistik, Banjee's chosen ride. But it was barely visible as it blended into the surrounding jungle, and thus the two Metal Maniacs left it there.

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	16. Swamp Realm (part 3)

**Chapter 16: Swamp Realm (part 3)**

Shirako and Gale were busy racing down a track together, the speakers set in the backs of their trucks pumping music into the air. Inside of Bassline, the elder Takamoto stole a glance over at his sister's car. In all honesty, he had never seen a car that had a better sound system that his own, and he wasn't sure if he should be jealous or not. Leave it to his little sister to outdo him.

Inside her own car, Gale giggled as she caught the somewhat peeved look on her sibling's face. She had a feeling that Shirako was going to try and construct a better sound system than her own in the near future. Not that Gale would ever let him surpass her own. She prided herself on the twelve speaker set in the back of Bass Vortex, after all.

So she merely smiled at her brother, causing a half-hearted scowl to cross his face. That scowl quickly morphed into a startled look as something jostled his vehicle. Brother and sister quickly glanced out of their windows, only to be met by the sight of a giant mosquito that had latched onto Bassline. Another thump echoed through the air a moment later as Bass Vortex was similarly assaulted.

The mosquitos hissed - do mosquitos even hiss?- and began to flap their wings, lifting their prey off of the ground. The vibrating wings made this horrible buzzing sound that cut through the music, something which was actually more annoying to the Takamotos then the fact that a pair of bugs were making off with their vehicles. Gale groaned in protest while Shirako sighed.

"Man, if you're going to buzz, at least have the decency to buzz in tune." He complained before turning up his music, pushing his speaker set as loud as it would go. The sound waves, loud enough to give the majority of the planet's population a headache, didn't appeal to the bugs that much. They squealed, even as Gale followed her brother's suit and turned her own music up as well. Finally, they dropped the cars, the Takamoto siblings landing on terra firma once more.

Shirako fishtailed slightly as he tried to regain control of his vehicle, while Gale laughed and bumped her volume up a little more, ensuring that it was just a tiny bit louder than the music her brother was playing. Said brother looked at her, a somewhat disgruntled expression adorning his face.

"Aw, dude, that is so not fair." He complained, prompting Gale to laugh.

"What can I say? Two can play at that game, bro." She replied.

* * *

Taro was by himself, his half-sister nowhere in sight, although a Drone was hot on his tail. Terra hadn't explicitly stated that she was his half-sister, but her words in the infirmary had pretty much confirmed it in his eyes. She, for whatever reason, didn't seem to have enjoyed him finding that out and had grown even colder towards him.

If the Asian Metal Maniac was being honest with himself, it did bother him a little that his only sibling didn't appear to like him. This wasn't coming from any notions of narcissism or vainness, it was simply that like a lot of only children he had wanted a sibling growing up. Granted the younger Taro probably would have preferred a brother over a sister, but regardless it would have been nice to have a sibling or two. Finding out that he not only had a sibling but that she seemed to hate him...well, it did kind of bug him, to say the least.

Speaking of bugs, it appeared his bay was going to go from bad, to worse, to bug infested. One of the giant mosquitos that had been pestering the Takamoto siblings just a few minutes earlier had swooped down on his vehicle, deciding that perhaps Taro would be easier prey. For his part, Taro merely looked up for a second before shrugging and went back to concentrating on his driving. If a bug wanted to land on his car, he wasn't going to do anything about it; especially when he had more pressing concerns.

His uninvited guest didn't appear to like being ignored and howled angrily.

The only thing that saved Taro from becoming a human shish kabob was his peripheral vision. A sudden blur of movement caught his eye, and instinctively he jerked his arm out of the way. Not even a second later, the mosquito's spear-like mouth pierced the metal roof of his car. It was quickly withdrawn, only for the bug to try stabbing him again. Taro flinched, as this time the insect's attack was a lot closer to him. Again the bug pulled its mouth back out and aimed at the human's head once more.

This time, however, Taro was ready. He grabbed a hold of the proboscis as soon as it pushed through the metal roof, preventing it from trying to kill him a fourth time. Thank goodness he was wearing gloves since he doubted that anything from this place would be sanitary.

"Okay, now what?" He muttered, acutely aware that he was going about this without any plan whatsoever. A very un-Kitano like thing for him to do, but he occasionally found himself in situations where his ability to improvise a plan on the fly would be tested. This was one such situation.

He received the answer to his question almost instantly. The Metal Maniac grinned, before stepping down on the gas. Up on the roof, the mosquito screamed as it noticed what Taro had seen. Five seconds later, it crashed face first into the tree root. Taro smirked before glancing at the bug's weapon of choice with distaste. It had been ripped cleanly from the bug's mouth when it had hit the tree branch. The man threw it out the window before continuing down the track. He had better things to do than to let bugs try to kill him.

* * *

Nolo also was having trouble with bugs in this Realm. He was already somewhat overwhelmed, with such a dangerous place being his first Realm. And, unfortunately for him, it was about to get a tad bit more dangerous. The other ill-fated mosquito that had gone after Shirako and Gale had picked Nolo as its next target, and swooped down on his car. No, it wasn't like he wasn't already having enough problems with the Drone that was a master at riding other people's bumpers, he had to have a mosquito to deal with now too.

The next thing he heard was a loud screech, and then the giant insect punctured a hole in his gas tank with that freakishly long mouth it had. Judging from some of the readings displayed on Synkro's dashboard, the mosquito was sucking the fuel straight out of his tank. That was a serious problem, one he couldn't afford to deal with right now. All it took was a press of a button on the dashboard to activate some lights Tone had rigged onto the car...well, at least back when Tone was alive., Oh how he missed his brother, and hated the man that not only killed him, but had duped his sister into liking him.

The mosquito didn't appear to like those lights very much. Jerking its proboscis out of the gas tank, it quickly spread its wings and took flight. In its haste, however, it never saw the Drone jet that was flying above it. Bug and machine collided with each other, resulting in a magnificent explosion that soon blossomed into a huge fireball.

* * *

Geeze, these Drones don't quit, do they Greenie?" Aurora asked aloud as she zipped down another branching path, a trio of Drones hot on her heels. The bubbly blonde wasn't letting this dampen her enthusiasm, no way. Nothing, nothing, would ever force her to lose her enthusiasm. It was such an important part of her character that she didn't believe she'd ever give it up.

Vert let out an audible groan. Since he wasn't near his cousin, he had no idea what was going on. But the fact that she insisted on calling him by that wretched, horrid nickname frustrated the surfer to no end.

The Drones behind Road Rage were gaining on the girl, causing her to press down on the gas and speed up, leaving the machines to choke on her dust. But she wasn't going to just let them off that easily, oh no. Instead, as soon as she was a reasonable distance away, she pulled a sharp U-turn and sped back towards the Drones.

"So, metal heads, let's see how you like a game of chicken!" She laughed. "First one to turn away loses!" And with that, she pressed the gas pedal to the floor and accelerated to the maximum speed her car could reach without having to use nitrox. These words caused Vert to worry a little about his annoyingly endearing cousin.

"Aurora, what exactly are you doing?" He inquired cautiously.

"Having fun, Greenie." She replied with a devilish grin on her face and a rather malicious laugh. Closer and closer the four vehicles got to one another, but the girl wasn't planning on backing down. Finally, at the last possible moment, the Drones swerved. One went right, and the other two went left. A pity that the track was so narrow that they sailed right off of the edge and crashed, exploding into giant green fireballs. Aurora laughed and pulled another one hundred and eighty degree turn before zipping back down the track at top speed.

"Man, if only you could have seen that Greenie!" She whooped. "That was awesome!"

"Aurora, for the love of racing, please stop calling me Greenie!"

* * *

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	17. Swamp Realm (part 4)

**Chapter 17: Swamp Realm (part 4)**

Kurt was speeding down the track, thankfully far away from his brother. He wasn't, however, far away from two Drones. Unlike most of the other drivers in the Realm who were trying get away from the robotic driver, Kurt was chasing after them. He wanted to get some revenge, good old-fashioned payback for the events that had transpired just over three years ago. He had been itching for a chance to make Gelorum and her minions pay for forcing him into spying on the other Highway 35 racers. Now, he had no problem with spying on Tezla - Kurt didn't trust the man, and probably would have gone about poking his nose into the man's business regardless of Gelorum's orders - but spying on the other racers was a pretty big no-no in his book.

A malicious glint in his eyes, the elder Wylde brother suddenly sped up and rammed one of the Drones, sending it sailing off the track. The machine met its unfortunate, untimely demise in the form of a tree branch, turning into a large fireball the minute the car crashed into the wood. Kurt smirked as he glanced back at the wreck, admiring his handiwork. It was only then that he faced front again and increased his speed once more, slamming into the other. This Drone also was forced of the track, meeting a similar fate as its brethren.

"Nice try!" Kurt called sarcastically, waving goodbye to the charred hunks of metal. He was so caught up in being smug, however, that he almost failed to notice that the track he was on ended rather abruptly. At the last minute, he finally realized he was on a collision course with a rather thick section of a vine. Crying out in shock, he hit the breaks and jerked his wheel sharply to the right. Moments later, his car went from traveling well over a hundred and ninety miles an hour to a dead-like zero miles per hour as he hit the cine. Thankfully, his little stunt with the wheel had worked, and the right side of Battle Spec took the brunt of the impact rather than his car crashing headfirst.

"Gah, dead end." He snapped angrily as he hit the steering wheel out of frustration. As he sat there fuming, however, some sort of strange disturbance in the color of the jungle foliage drew his attention. The man paused in his rather childish outburst to take a closer look, discovering that parked nearby was some sort of vehicle. It was a strange truck-like object with eight wheels, jointed segments, and an exposed cab painted red. It was covered with vines as if it had been abandoned to rot in the jungle for quite some time. Kurt shrugged before an idea began to form in his mind.

"Lani." He asked. "Could the Accelerons have left some kind of machine inside the Realm. You know, maybe...maybe something that would help a driver?"

"He's found a Hyperpod, an Accelian vehicle transformer." Tezla realized. Lani grinned and turned back to the control panel.

"Yes, Kurt, we think you could use it." The Hawaiian replied. Kurt nodded and drove over to the strange vehicle, parking his car in the red cab. The Hyperpod rumbled to life, and the Teku racer grinned before pressing down on the gas pedal. Slowly the Accelian craft began to move forward, and soon he was driving over the vines that had previously been blocking his path.

* * *

As it turned out, Kurt would not be the only one who would end up finding a Hyperpod. Pork Chop and Monkey were heading towards one as well, although the two were unaware of it. They were more concerned with the Drone Jet that was currently chasing them. Pork Chop glared out the window at the black and green aircraft, ignoring Monkey's muffled complaints about how the Drones got to fly through the Realm rather than have to deal with all of the dangers down on the track. He was so wrapped up in his problems, however, that he didn't notice the somewhat evil glint that appeared in his best friend's eyes.

"Hey, Monkey-man." Pork Chop suddenly instructed. "Hand me that anchor chain."

"What do you have an anchor chain for?" Monkey asked as he turned around and reached into the back seat to grab a hold of the metal chain.

"My anchor." Pork Chop replied tersely, wondering why his friend would ask such an inane and silly question. Monkey rolled his eyes before handing the chain off to the driver. Pork Chop gleefully accepted it before reaching under the dashboard and grabbing an honest to goodness anchor. He then attached the chain to said anchor, before hauling the rusty red metal tool out the window. Checking behind him to make sure that his aim was true, the burly southerner effortlessly hurled it back towards the pilot.

With a loud thunk, it connected with the cockpit of the jet, the pilot looking around as if trying to find the object that had latched onto its vehicle. Pork Chop grinned and began to shake the chain, causing the jet to jerk and swerve up in the air. Finally, at this point fed up with the pesky humans below it, the Drone tried to veer away sharply and release the chain from its aircraft.

Sadly it didn't quite work out the way the Drone planned it to. Instead of slipping free from the chain, it crashed into a tree and blew up. The anchor was pulled back with the wreckage of the jet, and though Pork Chop valiantly tried to keep a hold of it, he was forced to let it go. The recoil caused by the car not being weighed down with all that metal caused Jack Hammer to pitch forward, hurling the car off of the track. The vehicle rolled over a few times before landing on a Hyperpod. This one happened to be equipped with a set of twin drills, and as soon as it registered the presence of a vehicle it started up.

"What is this thing?" Monkey wondered.

"I don't know." Pork Chop replied. "But I like it. Yee-haw!" With that, he pressed down and the gas pedal and the vehicle charged forward, drilling a hole in the vines that it came into contact with.

* * *

Wylde groaned as he glanced behind him, realizing that somehow Terra had gotten onto the same track that he himself was on. Man, that girl creeped him out, and it wasn't just the fact that she was so similar to Taro that it wasn't even funny. At any given moment you could feel like someone was staring at you, and then you would look up and be trapped in the scrutiny of her strange brown eyes. And besides that, she honestly was perhaps the only person in the Acceledrome he was possibly scared of. He had no idea what had happened to her in the past that caused her to be so terrifying, but Terra probably wouldn't have any trouble beating him in a fight if they came to blows.

Not that he was ever going to admit to anyone, especially Kurt, that he was scared of a girl. Imagine what that would do to his image. The big, bad, ex-con freaking out over a girl just over half of his height and skinny as a thin tree trunk. Yeah, he could already hear the Teku laughing at him.

At the very least she hadn't bothered to contact him yet, not that Wylde was complaining about that particular fact. Shaking his head, the younger Wylde decided to focus his attention on the Drone that was chasing after the two of them, as well as the track that was winding its way through the jungle. There was a flash of green, and suddenly Terra's beat up wreckage of a car went tumbling over the edge of the track. It reappeared moments later, having landed on a track that just so happened to be running perpendicular to the one that Wylde was on. She sped up and soon vanished into the trees. Wylde was not sad to see her go.

Suddenly a large green foot crashed down onto the track right in front of him. Wylde flinched slightly as the owner of said foot, a green plant-like monster that would have put Bigfoot to shame, howled. To make matters worse, the Drone behind him was also charging up another EMP shot and was preparing to fire at him.

Huh. On second thought, perhaps Terra's company wasn't so bad after all.

The Drone finally finished charging up its attack, and soon that electric ball of death was flying towards him. Thinking fast, Wylde swerved off of the track, hoping and praying that there was another one beneath him to arrest his fall. The EMP shot hit the monster in the leg, causing it to roar angrily and pluck a passing jet out of the sky. The monster then hurled it onto the Drone car, causing another large explosion. It was funny how a good number of the Drone forces were falling victim to those in this Realm. How on earth could machines be so fragile?

Wylde's car, as it turned out, was a lot sturdier than the Drone one. Instead of blowing sky high, it merely flipped over a few times before landing on what at first glance appeared to be a green tube. Briefly, the boy wondered what it was, not at all certain that he wanted an answer to that question. Regardless of his wishes, he got one soon enough.

The giant slug that his car had landed on lifted its head up and screamed at him, displaying a mouth full of sharp teeth. Wylde flinched away, appalled and disgusted, before realizing that getting out of there might be a very good idea since right now the slug looked mad enough to eat him.

The Metal Maniac shifted his car into reverse and pressed down on the gas, driving back up the slug's slimy body and back onto the track. Putting Spine Buster back into drive again, he raced forward, determined to put as much distance between himself and that monstrosity as he could.

* * *

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	18. Swamp Realm (part 5)

**Chapter 18: Swamp Realm (part 5)**

"Hey Greenie, how're you doing?" Vert groaned as Aurora asked him yet another question. Fortunately, she was using a private channel between the two cars, so no one else heard her using that rather humiliating nickname.

"For the last time, Aurora, please stop calling me Greenie." He groaned. "And as for how I'm doing, I happen to be caught between a rock and a hard place, so to speak, so I kind of need to concentrate right now."

The 'rock and a hard place' that he spoke of happened to be Taro, and yet another Drone. This one differed from its brothers, however, in the fact that it drove a much more elaborate care. Perhaps this signified that it was the leader, although truth to be told, neither Vert or Taro really cared.

Apparently, the Drone cared about the fact that in this little race within a race, it was currently occupying last place. Now, as one could imagine the machine wasn't that happy about that, and quickly decided to do something about it. Doing something about its positioning appeared to involve using the Accelecharger it had on it, the same one that it had used earlier in the Realm to escape from that claw-like vine. In a flare of soft blue light it vanished, only to reappear in front of Taro. This of course booted him to second place, and Vert to last.

"They can't stop the Accelechargers." The Drone said flatly. Back in the Drone's headquarters, Gelorum smirked as her faithful lieutenant reported in, knowing that they had won. The celebration was short-lived, however, as something smashed into the Drone. It was Taro, and judging from the look on his face he wasn't going to let the Drones hold the lead for long.

"Not this time." He muttered as he deployed a spiked plow from his vehicle and ramming it into the other car, anchoring the two vehicles together. The Metal Maniac then quickly hit the brakes, the forward momentum of the two cars coming to a crashing halt. It also had the adverse effect of causing the two vehicles to start to roll over, and as one they went flipping down the track.

Vert paled as he saw this, fearing for Taro's safety as well as his own. How on earth was he going to get past the wreckage in motion without crashing himself. The answer, when it came to him, was so blatantly obvious that had he not been driving he would have facepalmed. His car had jump jets built into the bottom of the chassis. He could use that to get past the other two.

With that, he quickly activated them, safely bypassing the crash site by flying over it. He landed further down the track and hit the gas, speeding around the corner and disappearing from view.

Behind him, the cars came to a stop. Somehow, in the midst of the rather impressive crash, the two vehicles had gotten separated. Taro shook his head a few times to clear it, while the Drone angrily watched the retreating form of Vert's car. With an angry growl, it acquired the surfer as its new target and began to race after him, Taro hot on the machine's heels. While Vert may not have been a Metal Maniac, Taro wasn't keen on the idea of letting the Drones win, and if that meant that he had to hold the Drone off long enough to allow Vert to get through the portal then so be it.

The other drivers were also making their way down the tracks as well. Pork Chop and Kurt had both made it through the vines that blocked their tracks, while the rest of the drivers - except for Shirako and Gale, as the track they were on was rather long and twisted, putting them behind the others - were also getting to the point where the trees and vines weren't as thick. Slowly but surely the tracks were converging into a single one.

"Hey, I can see the end of the track!" Vert said suddenly. Sure enough, past what looked like a giant, rotting tree stump he could see the blue ring-shaped portal. The symbol was still glowing in the center, too, meaning that no one had taken the Accelecharger yet.

"Am I glad this Realm's over with." Monkey said to himself, a bit relieved.

"Oh boy, one thousand more feet and we're home free!" Aurora cheered. "Hah, that jungle wasn't so tough. We got through it in one piece, and now there's nothing to stop us from getting the Accelecharger and sending those Drones back empty-handed! Right, Greenie?"

Vert's angry protest regarding his actual name was drowned out by the supposedly harmless tree stump opening its glassy yellow-orange eyes and letting out a terrific howl.

"You just had to say something, didn't you?" Talia groaned as the jungle came alive, as if it were heeding the call of its master. Even though she was pretty far away from the head of the pack, and thus couldn't see the final monster in the Swamp Realm, she could certainly hear it.

"What can I say? It's probably karma." Aurora replied with a shrug. "Eh, the concept, not the lady on the Teku."

"More like Murphy's Law." Terra muttered darkly.

Vert ignored the little conversation that was going on, more focused on the new hazards that were currently trying to attack him. Vines were swooping in from out of nowhere, chasing after Power Rage. The surfer paled slightly and tried to avoid them by swerving onto the very shoulder of the track, where mossy green creepers grew. His tires couldn't grip the surface that well, and his vehicle slowed down fractionally. The boy quickly realized this and swerved back onto the middle of the track and sped up again, but the damage was already done.

His vehicle suddenly jerked sharply, and then it left the track. A quick glance behind the him showed that a vine had managed to hook itself to his car, and currently was the cause of his predicament. Worse still, more vines began to weave their way around the vehicle, trapping him in a living prison.

"Lani!" Vert radioed in a panic. "You've got to warn the other drivers to be careful. There's this giant monster and -" His transmission was cut off in a burst of static as a vine broke through the side window and smashed his radio before beginning to wind itself around his arm; even as more vines began creeping into the white vehicle.

Below him, the vines were also going after the Drone that was chasing him. It used yet another Accelecharger, one that turned the car it was driving into something as flat as a piece of paper. The vines couldn't get a grip on the car, as it cleanly sliced through them. Vert frowned, before an idea struck him. He ripped the vine off of his arm using his free hand ignoring the plant matter that was currently strangling his steering wheel for the time being. Instead, he hit the button that deployed his grappling hook.

By some stroke of luck, it hit the back of the Drone's vehicle, forcing it to return to the third dimension. But the resistance of the vines that were restraining Power Rage was too much for the grappling hook, and the rope was pulled from his car. The vines, now able to wind around the car, quickly lifted their prey from the track. The Drone howled in fury as it lost its chance to win the race.

Pork Chop and Monkey had met up with Taro, and they arrived at the stump monster's neck of the the woods just in time to see the Drone get captured. Unfortunately for him, Taro quickly was ensnared as well, causing Monkey - who at this point was already beyond scared - to go into full blown panic mode.

"If we go fast enough, they won't even be able to catch us." He cried with a hint of desperation in his voice.

"It's no use trying to dodge the vines, Pork Chop." Lani argued, shooting down the idea. But Monkey was not to be deterred.

"Drive! Drive! Drive!" He yelled, egging his friend on. "Use the nitrox!" Pork Chop shrugged and hit the button that activated his nitrox booster. Jack Hammer shot forward, spewing red flames and popping up on its back wheels. They were charging right into the thick of the vines, and Monkey flinched as one barely missed his arm. Perhaps this wasn't such a good idea after all.

"Stay in the groove, Pork Chop!" He yelled as his friend careened from side to side, dodging the incoming vines. Lani was watching all of this in the Acceledrome, only to feel a touch of fear as the two men were also captured. She heard Monkey yell out a warning, and through the camera saw a vine rushing towards the cockpit. Involuntarily she flinched as it hit, knocking out the camera and audio. The display turned completely to static.

"The nitrox boost isn't fast enough." She realized as Aurora, Terra, Kurt, and Verity were similarly caught. Wylde and Talia were nowhere in sight, which only left one option. Unfortunately, it wasn't an option that she rather liked suggesting. "Nolo, Tork, you both are going to really hate this idea, but you two need to draft together. It's the only way to get more speed."

"Yeah right, like that's going to happen." Aurora said brightly. "Those two can barely stand being on the same continent. What makes you think that they're going to work together?"

Nolo scowled angrily. He currently was in second place, which meant that Tork would end up winning if they worked together. And that simply wasn't going to happen. Why would he work together with a murderer, particularly one who had killed his older brother? His mind made up, he angrily shifted gears and sped up.

"Nolo, what do you think you're doing?" Lani demanded.

"Watch me." He replied tersely. Before he could do anything, however, he was interrupted by someone rudely running into his bumper. A quick glance behind him showed that the Maniac of all Maniacs, otherwise known as Wylde, had caught up to him.

"Hah! C'mon, draft with me Tork!" He suggested. Tork smirked before swerving into the front end of Synkro, while Wylde did the same thing to the back end of the car on the opposite side. The staggered nature of the hits, as well as the position of the blows, caused Nolo to spin out. Synkro crashed against the side of the track, thankfully in a place that was out of reach of the vines. The Latino groaned and rubbed his head, knowing that he would have more than a few bruises in the morning. Up ahead, Tork fell in line behind Wylde as the two started their attempt to make it to the end of the track.

* * *

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	19. Swamp Realm (part 6)

**Chapter 19: Swamp Realm (part 6)**

Up above the two Metal Maniacs, the vines were continuing their assault on the other drivers. One of them broke through the window of Jack Hammer, and Pork Chop grabbed a hold of it before it could start to do any damage. He tried to force it out of the window before eventually scowling and bit into it. The vine retreated so fast that someone passing by would have thought that it had been burned. Terra's car was completely covered with vines, but she was using her trusty knife to slice and dice her way through the vines. Aurora was currently mummified, save for a small hole where her mouth and nose were that allowed her to breathe, and both Taro and Verity were under assault from more of the plants.

Monkey had his own set of problems as well, as a whole group of vines teamed up to tear off the passenger side door. Down below he could see Wylde and Tork racing on the track, swerving slightly to dodge the vines. The mechanic quickly fixed the radio to warn them about the hidden hazard in the Realm.

"Wylde, stay in the center of the track." He radioed.

"Scrap it, Monkey," Wylde replied tersely.

"It's true, it's stickier, it has better traction than the sides."

"Monkey now is not the best time!" Wylde snapped. He appreciated Monkey's help, but he was busy. Call him crazy, but the teen was under the impression that if a person was driving down an interdimensional race course in a swamp where everything was mutated to insanely huge sizes and living vines were currently trying to capture said person's car, that it was not the best time for someone to be yelling advice.

The pair continued weaving their way through the vines, but soon disaster struck. Tork and Wylde had spent so much time driving on the very edge of the track that the mossy creepers growing there had managed to slow them down just enough to allow the vines to capture them. Cries of outrage and shock filled the air as the two drivers were plucked from the track, and quickly ensnared.

"What's going on?" Lani asked, sounding panicked. "What's happening?"

"Um, given the fact that no one has gone through the portal to get back home, I'd say that there's a 100% chance that the two of them got captured." Aurora quipped nervously, her voice muffled somewhat from the vines surrounding her. Vert was about to chastise her about making a joke at a time like this, even if it was rather half-hearted, but his intended scolding quickly morphed into a slight scream as the Lieutenant Drone smashed its way through the windshield and clamped a hand down around his neck.

"Your head is next, human." It sneered before a larger, greener hand enclosed it, ripping the Drone rather forcefully from Vert's throat. It belonged to a giant, furry green monster, who roared angrily before ripping the Drone in half and hurtling both parts onto the track below. Vert kind of just sat there, a stunned look on his face.

Then the vines rushed in through the hole in his windshield and began trying to mummify him. A giant slug, probably the same one Wylde had seen earlier in the Realm, screamed at Tork. A few feet away, Kurt vainly tried to free himself from the vines that had ensnared Battle Spec. Aurora was slowly being constricted, and Verity conked another one of those giant monsters on the head with a wrench she kept in her vehicle. A giant mosquito poked its head through Pork Chop's window, causing Monkey to scream in fear. Shirako, Gale, and Talia were nowhere in sight.

And then there was Nolo. He hadn't moved from his spot after the crash, instead observing the entire capture of the drivers. The boy allowed himself the luxury of a single minute to think things over, before taking a deep breath. The look on his face changed to one of determination, and without any hesitation, he stepped on the gas. Synkro shot out of the shadow of the trees, a convoy of Drones hot on Nolo's heels, while the vines began to chase after him. But as he drove, Nolo's mind wasn't really that focused on what he was doing. Instead, he couldn't help but think back to the night of Tone's death again.

You want to be the leader now, little bro?" Tone had asked as he playfully punched Nolo in the arm.

"I don't know," Nolo replied, once again turning serious. "Being leader? Sounds like a heavy load, man. You'd probably be better off asking Talia."

"Nah, a leader needs experience, and right now Talia doesn't have any." Tone replied, privately mentioning to himself that Talia also would rather die than associate with either of her two brothers.

"Neither do I." Nolo pointed out.

"Look, it's like taking a curve, bro." Tone finally said. "It's not so hard finding the right line, the hard part is staying in it." He paused and looked over at his brother. "Just remember, Nolo. Stay in the groove."

"No! Listen to me!" Lani cried, a bit fearful for the Latino's safety, inadvertently breaking him out of his flashback. "You have to wait for another car to draft with."

"If he waits, the Drones will win," Tezla replied.

"I think I'd prefer a to let the Drones get a little stronger if them winning the Realm means that my teammates don't get killed," Karma said icily, not liking the fact that Tezla was basically suggesting that they sacrifice Nolo to stop the Drones.

"You can't make it on your own, Nolo!" Lani protested.

"I'll make it!" Nolo retorted heatedly, cursing in Spanish as the Drones began taking potshots at him, trying to get him out of the way.

"Move it, lamebrains!"

The rather unexpected cry came from Talia as she muscled her car through the convoy, thoroughly disrupting their precise line and sending the forces into chaos. The girl had finally caught up and had quickly assessed the situation. Seeing her friends all tied up and about to become swamp chow made her blood boil, and thus the girl decided to do something about it.

Eventually - after several curses, insults, and a whole lot of shoving cars aside - she made it through the convoy and fell in line behind Nolo, who looked back at her in shock.

"What are you doing?" He asked, rather confused by his sister's action.

"What does it look like I'm doing you sorry excuse for a street racer?" Talia snapped. "I'm helping you get your junk car to the end of this track so the rest of us don't get eaten alive."

"But why? I thought you hated me." Nolo apparently was still confused.

"Don't get your hopes up." Talia sneered. "I still hate your guts, but it's kind of hard for me to hate your guts if I'm dead. Stop asking dumb questions and get that pile of scrap metal in gear before I change my mind."

"Alright, alright." Nolo sounded frustrated now, but nonetheless shifted gears and sped up, keeping to the center of the track. And, insults aside, Talia did have a point. It was better to drive now and ask questions later. The vines began to chase after them in earnest with another howl from the strange tree-stump monster. One such vine caught another Drone, while a different one smashed down on a different machine and flattened it.

Nolo swore in Spanish as his own car was almost crushed as well, and wisely decided that it was time to get out of there. He activated his nitrox, and Synkro sped forward as it spewed blue flames. Talia also activated her own booster, and purple flames soon joined the blue ones.

Up ahead, the portal was being covered by vines in a last-ditch effort to keep the drivers trapped in the Realm. Nolo gritted his teeth and pressed the gas pedal down as far as it would go. The end of the track was approaching, and it was a race to see whether or not the two siblings would make it. They finally reached it, sailing off of the jump and barely squeezing through a crack in the vines.

Inside the Realm, all was still as it had been before, minus the two Pasero siblings trying to make it out of the Realm, of course. But after a few seconds, a green wave of energy blasted through the entire Realm. None of the drivers saw it, however, as they were a bit preoccupied with their predicaments.

Tork flinched away when the slug suddenly darted forward, mouth open to reveal a bunch of vicious teeth. Well, as much as he could with all of the vines restraining him. But before the monster could take a huge bite out of the man, it suddenly paused and drew back, coiling back towards the ground as the vines began to unwind themselves from Hollowback.

Monkey screamed as the giant mosquito landed on top of Jack Hammer once again. But before the bug did anything, it raised its head and appeared to listen to something. Then it flew off, while the vines also uncoiled from the vehicle and drivers. Monkey and Pork Chop both cried out in shock as they immediately started falling through the air. They weren't the only ones that were freed - the other drivers, Drones included, started to fall back down to the track as well. It was lucky that the Drones were pretty much piles of spare parts at this point.

Behind them, the swamp monster let out a final howl before stilling. Some sort of stone began to creep along one of its two arms, turning the thing the color of ash. Eventually, it covered up the whole creature, but whether it was petrified or dead no one knew. In all honesty, none of them cared.

The only three Drones to survive the Realm made tracks for the portal, ignoring the human drivers and leaving behind their fallen comrades. They had no use for scrap metal and spare parts, after all.

Pork Chop rubbed his head, having hit it in the landing when that infernal noise filled his ears. He was, of course, referring to both Shirako and Gale's music. The Asian Americans had finally caught up to the others. Gale joined her teammates in making tracks for the portal, while Shirako pulled to a stop in front of Vert. The surfer was standing next to the wreckage of Power Rage, which had lost a wheel and had landed on its side, too crumpled to drive. The blonde opened the door and got in.

"Dumb stereos on wheels."Pork Chop muttered before clamping his teeth down on the bone he wore around his neck.

* * *

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	20. A Brief Departure

**Chapter 20: A Brief Departure**

"Achoo!"

A sudden, violent sneeze erupted from the teenager, causing her to take a few wobbly steps back before falling to the ground. It was freezing outside, but since she was in Los Angeles in the middle of the night in the dead of winter it was understandable. Sure, it was nice and toasty warm here in the middle of the day, but night time was another story.

"Gesundheit." She said to herself as she regained her feet.

"You okay, Jette?" A blonde haired man in his early twenties asked.

"Yeah, yeah, other than the cold I'm completely fine, Rufus," Jette replied in a voice that was somehow both cheerful and sarcastic at the same time. It was obvious the girl wasn't in good shape. If the fact that she was coughing, hacking, and sneezing up a storm wasn't enough to show that she was most certainly not fine, the bullet holes that were still oozing crimson blood was.

"Don't think I don't know sarcasm when I hear it, you goofball," Rufus said lightly. "What's the big idea of trying to steal something from the Ghouls? That gang's the roughest one in town, and they don't joke when they say they're going to shoot at anyone that comes into their territory."

"First of all, I wasn't stealing anything. I dropped my wallet and it rolled down the hill into their territory. I was merely retrieving my property." Jette retorted. "And second of all, I figured that I'd be in and out before anyone noticed me. Besides, everyone on the street knows that I'm not a part of the gangs, I just crash at your hideout because you let me."

"Regardless you're lucky their guard had bad aim," Rufus replied as he opened the door to the abandoned garage, pulling the girl in out of the elements. "You're lucky that he only hit your arm and not your heart."

"At least I got my wallet back." Jette pulled the item out of her pocket happily, causing Rufus to sigh.

"Why'd you even go after it? It wasn't worth it if you ask me." He said.

"It's got a letter from my mom inside," Jette confessed as she pulled out a wrinkled, yellowed sheet of paper. "It's the only piece I have of her and my twin sister. You know how mom had to give me to one of her friends to raise since she couldn't raise two girls. This is the only piece of my family I have left."

* * *

"Has she woken up yet, Zetta?" The purple android sighed and glanced over at his metal companion.

"Not yet, Meg," Zetta replied, glancing over at the cot that was nestled in a small alcove in the room. A girl - in truth the only human in the small Accelian outpost - was lying on it, eyes closed. Her name was simply Jay. No surname, just Jay. In truth, it was her nickname, but she had dropped her real name a long time ago.

Yes, Jay, the only human to reside in Highway 35. A victim of the Acceleron and Drone feud, or so she thought. Jay had the misfortune to find a piece of the Wheel of Power in her hometown of Chicago, the innermost section called the Zero Ring. It had pulled her into Highway 35, trapping her here. Needless to say, Jay hadn't liked that too much, and thus like any teenager would most likely do she tried to resist the Accelerons and the power they had gifted her.

Unfortunately, she decided to resist it when they very first Realm had opened up. The girl had succeeded but at the cost of falling into a coma as soon as the Realm closed. Trying to fight the interdimensional pull with only her willpower had been too much.

That had been about seven months ago. She hadn't died, but the girl's condition also hadn't improved.

Meg seemed to deflate a bit hearing that Jay wasn't up yet, and soon left the room. Meg's sister Kilo wandered in a few moments later to ask a question, and soon Gigabyte and Exabyte came in from patrol. Meg decided to be funny and douse Kilo with water, and the blue android, needless to say, wasn't thrilled.

"You're so immature!" Kilo snapped, hissing like a cat as Exabyte tossed the unfortunate victim a towel.

"Oh, quit being such a wet blanket." Meg giggled. If Kilo wasn't livid before, she certainly was not, and Giga was forced to physically restrain her. Exabyte sighed, and Zetta spared a moment to glance towards the heavens in exasperation before returning to her work. And throughout all the commotion, Jay didn't stir.

* * *

Maria scowled as she paced through her cell. Fourteen steps one way, pivot, fourteen steps the other way, pivot, fourteen steps the first way once again. It was a miracle that she hadn't worn a trench into the floor already.

Muttering in Spanish to herself, she switched directions, pacing along the width of the cell rather than the length. There was more space here - twenty-two steps between each pivot rather than fourteen - and soon settled into the new rhythm. All the while she still spoke to herself in Spanish, reciting poems, composing stories, carrying on conversations with the wall. Anything to stop her from going insane.

Clank, clank, clank. Heavy footfalls the girl blithely ignored soon entered the room. Cumbersome black metal hands wrenched open her cell door, tossing in a tray of food and a bottle of water before slamming the door shut. Food, water, any form of sustenance really was enough to get her to stop her weary trudge, and eagerly the girl turned to look at her meal. It was sort of skimpy, and half of it had spilled on the floor.

Once she wouldn't have even dreamed of eating the stuff that had spilled. But it had been days since Maria had consumed anything, and thus she swallowed her pride and scooped the pieces of bread and the small wrinkly apple off of the floor, brushing them off before setting them next to the lump of cheese that had thankfully not pitched onto the cold metal tiles.

Maria ate quickly before returning to her pacing. Shaking her head, she sighed and let some sort of half-laugh escape her.

"Aye Tono." She chuckled. "What would you, Mama, Nolito, and little Talia think of me if you all saw me now?"

"He wouldn't think anything." Maria glanced over at the door, where Gelorum had appeared. She wasn't alone, as LD-01 was dragging an unconscious African into the room. Said African was quickly tossed into the cell.

"And why is that?" Maria inquired frostily. She had no love for the freaky old hag of an android that had locked her up for the past three and a half months. In her eyes, Gelorum was a hypocrite - always looking down on humans but at the same time trying to emulate them so much.

"Your precious twin won't ever tell you anything again," Gelorum promised, reveling in the look of anguish that appeared on Maria's face as she spoke. "Because he is dead."

* * *

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	21. Chrome Realm (part 1)

**Chapter 21: Chrome Realm (part 1)**

All of a single day had passed since the Swamp Realm opened when the alarms rang out in the middle of the night, startling the drivers from their slumber. Groans and muffled curses could be heard as they reluctantly climbed out of their warm, comfortable beds and quickly changed into their clothes. Soon the three teams had assembled in their respective garages, though in truth everyone knew who was going to be racing. None of the Teku or the Metal Maniacs had been able to repair - or in Vert's case rebuild - their cars to the point where they would be safe to drive. And although several of the Metal Teku also had damage to their vehicles, they had managed to get their cars into driveable conditions.

Thus, it came as no surprise to anyone when Tezla announced that Verity, Gale, Talia, Terra, and Aurora would be racing this time around. The rest of the drivers didn't really have anything to do, and the vast majority of them went back to bed. Vert, Nolo, and Shirako wandered up to the conference room to watch the Realm, while Tork pulled the camera feed from his sister's car up on one of the screens in the garage and was splitting his time by watching it and working on his car. Taro had gone back to his room, choosing to view the footage being broadcasted from his half-sister's vehicle using his laptop.

The Metal Teku quickly climbed into their respective vehicles, driving onto the track and towards the jump into the other Realms. Talia considered taking another verbal swipe at Nolo as she passed him, but decided to save it for when she won this Realm. She hadn't been that happy about having to let him take all the glory in the Swamp Realm. The girl had to even the score, and what better way to show her older brother that he wasn't any special driver by winning an Accelecharger as well?

The dimensional portal quickly swallowed the cars up, sending them sailing through the transitory dimension before expelling them out into the Racing Realm. The girls quickly saw what awaited them, and as one they came to a quick decision. All of them hit the brakes, coming to a screeching halt.

"Yo, nice place." Gale eventually said as she took a look around. "A little bit trippy for my tastes, though."

It was like being stuck in a hall of mirrors. Everything - the walls, the track, giant orbs that were floating in the air - appeared to be made out of gleaming silver metal, polished to a shine. Countless reflections of the girls and their cars danced along the walls, some perfectly proportionate and others strangely warped.

"Wow," Aurora whispered. "Do you know how many shamrocks I could buy for Greenie if I had this much silver?"

Vert, of course, groaned when he heard this, while Nolo and Shirako both kind of laughed. Like most other occupants of the Acceledrome, the two younger members of the Teku found Aurora's nickname for Vert absolutely hilarious.

"I don't think it's silver." Terra eventually said. "It looks more like chrome."

"Silver, chrome, I could care less," Talia replied. "Let's just get going. We've already wasted five minutes, and it wouldn't surprise me if Drones start popping up in a few moments."

"Heh, you mean like those Drones up there?" Aurora asked innocently, jerking her thumb at a group of the green and black monstrosities that tore out of a side-route and ended up right in front of the girls. Talia swore under her breath and hit the gas. Techtyte went from zero to one twenty in mere moments, the other girls quickly falling into line. But they drove with the tiniest bit of apprehension, hyperfocused on their surroundings. With all of the reflections, it would not only be easy to almost crash into each other but the surrounding environment as well.

"Keep an eye out for the skid marks the Drones leave," Verity ordered as she took the point position. "Since they're flat, they won't show up on the reflections as much, if at all."

Her advice was the result of a minute of intelligent observation, realizing that the paths with skid marks would be the ones to follow. With the sterile cleanliness of the mirrored Realm, the tiniest bit of pressure would leave dirt, smudges, and marks for the girls to follow.

Of course, that meant that the Drones were flying blind. And as most things that are flying blind are wont to do, they crashed. Rather badly, in fact. One moment there was nothing wrong, and then suddenly the small squadron of Drones was awash in green flames that scorched the mirrors, and billowing black smoke that choked the unnatural air, creating a huge inferno that blocked the girl's path.

"Well then." Terra simply said, while in her car Aurora grinned.

"That was epic!" She yelled, causing Lani to wince.

"You do realize that we just lost our way." Talia wondered, a touch of exasperation in her voice. "Not only can we not get through that pile of flaming junk, we also don't know what are reflections and what aren't reflections."

"Oh." Aurora seemed to visibly deflate. "I hadn't thought of that."

"Think a bit after we back up," Verity suggested as she looked over at the cars. "That fire's pretty hot."

And it was, hot enough to scorch the mirrors. Unbeknownst to the girls, the chemical composition of the air in the Chrome Realm did not contain enough oxygen to fuel a fire of that size or scale for very long, and thus the flames were being fed primarily with a few chemicals that kept the mirrors from corroding over time. Burning this chemical created compounds that would hasten the corrosion of metal, and their cars were being exposed to it. With the protective seals on their vehicles, all of the Metal Teku should be safe. All of them for Terra, that is. Her car, made as it was out of junk parts, was much more at risk for being corroded.

But the girls weren't aware of this and were more concerned with the flames. Or, as Aurora so aptly put it, it was best for them to focus on getting to a safe distance to ensure that the flesh wouldn't melt off of their faces. She, for whatever reason, seemed to think this extremely morbid thought was rather hilarious, judging from her failure to muffle the giggles and snickers coming from Road Rage.

"How much time do we have left?" Verity asked nervously as she looked at the blaze. The girl really didn't want to get stuck in a Realm like poor old Kadeem was.

"About 45 minutes," Lani replied a moment later.

"So, in other words, we've progressed perhaps four miles from the portal in fifteen minutes." Talia sighed and rested her forehead against the steering wheel. "Anyone else hoping that this is one of the shorter Realms the Accelerons came up with?"

"Aw, dude, I hope so," Gale said. Terra, up until this moment, had been largely silent, trying to postulate a way for them to get through the wreck. She had come to the conclusion that there was no way for them to do so. Which meant that if they couldn't go through the wreckage, there had to be a way around it. But how to pierce an unpierceable illusion?

"Gale." She suddenly said. "Theoretically speaking, is it possible to map this place by using sound waves? If not the entire Realm, than just the surrounding area?"

"Yo, why didn't I think of this before?" Gale cranked the volume up on her car while setting the vehicle's built-in computer to track the sound waves and translate it into a hologram. The picture was blurry, but she was able to make out the general layout of this small area of the Realm.

"If we go back fifty feet, there's another track that diverges off of this one." She announced.

"Got it. You take the lead for now." Talia wanted to win, but she wasn't going to mess around. "Everyone, go as fast as you can. We've lost a lot of time, and we need to make up some ground."

* * *

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	22. Chrome Realm (part 2)

**Chapter 22: Chrome Realm (part 2)**

The lightheartedness among the girls faded as they carefully drove through the mirrored maze, spiraling through a rather trippy corkscrew in the track that made their headlights flash off of the walls and blind them for a brief moment. Gale was still in the lead, guiding the group through the dangerous Realm in near silence. The tension was so thick it was almost visible, feeding into the rather dangerous atmosphere.

"Yo, I think we've got a problem." Gale eventually said as she came to a halt, the others falling in line behind her. They may or may not have been at a dead end, but it was hard to tell with all of the mirrored surfaces surrounding them.

"What's wrong?" Lani asked, a bit concerned.

"The track splits," Gale reported. "I can see five different paths on my scans, but since there are a lot more surfaces using sound waves to map this portion of the track's not possible. What should we do?"

"Nuts." Aurora didn't sound happy. "So, are we splitting up, or are we sticking together?"

"Whatever decision we make, we better decide quickly." Terra murmured. "I hear Drones."

She was right, of course. The faint rumble of engines drifted through the air to reach their ears. The Drones were coming, they must have been following the girls through the Realm. How else would they make it through this place unscathed?

"Split up," Tezla ordered calmly, each girl internally wincing as they heard those dreaded words. "I believe you will each have a better chance of avoiding the hazards in this Realm if you are by yourselves."

It made sense, in a rather convoluted way. If the girls went their separate ways, then they wouldn't have to focus on keeping track of their companion's positions. So, with a tiny bit of reluctance, they split up. Aurora and Terra peeled off to the right, while Talia and Verity went to the left. Gale remained in the middle. One after another the five racers seemingly phased through the walls to enter new portions of the Realm. For the first time in this dangerous place, each one of them was on their own.

The Drones arrived not long after the Metal Teku had departed. The leader of this small squadron hissed to its subordinates in their strange metallic language, before the robots split up as well. Groups of three went down each track, ready to fire on any human at a moment's notice.

TechTyte roared down the track, Talia pushing her car to go as fast as she dared. Hazel eyes darted left and right, analyzing the surrounding area to determine the correct path. Part of her was worried that she wouldn't make it out of the Realm - Lani had announced that they had passed the thirty minute mark moments ago. Another part of her was concerned about her teammates. Talia didn't like the idea of splitting up, especially if it meant that she wouldn't be there to help her teammates out if they got into trouble.

The sounds of engines split the air, and Talia groaned as she caught sight of a trio of Drones rounding the corner, chasing after her car. How on earth had they caught up to her that quickly? Although she certainly was not going as fast as her car could possibly go, it wasn't like she was going twenty miles an hour. One hundred and twenty miles an hour yes, but that was far from a leisurely pace.

And if that weren't as big of a problem already, the Drones decided that they were going to take potshots at her. So now the girl not only had to deal with trying to discern where the track was, she also had to be on the lookout for electronic balls of doom. Yeah, that wasn't exactly fun.

"I've got trouble." She announced, cursing as one of the EMP bursts clipped the side of TechTyte, almost taking out one of her tires.

"What kind and how bad is this trouble?" Verity inquired.

"Drones," Talia replied in a terse tone, swerving slightly as she foiled an attempt by one of them to ram her vehicle. "These glorified can openers are gaining on me."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, let me get this straight." Aurora interrupted with a grin. "Talia-I'm-never-going-fast-enough-Pasero is actually allowing someone to catch up to her? Somebody call the newspapers!"

"Is this really the time or place for that sort of behavior?" Terra asked in an exasperated tone.

"Probably not." Aurora giggled.

"I have every confidence in my car's speed, Aurora." Talia retorted as she dodged another attack from the Drones. "I also have every confidence that if I go even faster than I already am going, you'd be lucky enough to find enough of my remains to fill a shoebox. And that's if you looked extremely carefully."

Talia never got a chance to hear Aurora's response. Behind her, the three Drones suddenly moved forward to surround TechTyte, trapping the green car completely. Before the Latina could react, the three robots rammed her simultaneously, forcing her car into the wall. There was a sharp crashing noise, the sound of metal scraping against metal, flashes of light punctuating her vision. TechTyte's momentum was finally curbed by the wall, the sudden stop causing Talia to pitch forward in her chair. The girl's racing harness arrested most of her forward motion, causing a sharp pain to blossom in the girl's chest. Only her head and neck kept on going, snapping forward until Talia's head hit the steering wheel hard enough to make the girl see stars.

The radio and camera feed burst into a blitz of static as the car's functions were temporarily shut down. As far as anyone was watching could tell, all there had been was a blur of motion, the sounds of a crash, and then absolutely nothing.

* * *

Nolo paled and bolted upright in his chair, staring at the now static covered screen in a mix of shock, panic, and fear.

"Talia? Talia, can you hear me?" Lani asked, her voice floating through the speakers.

"Yo guys, Techtyte's offline," Gale reported, her voice a bit tinny from the speakers. "Should one of us circle back to help Talia out?"

Nolo ignored them, instead focusing on the screen where his sister's camera feed had been displayed. He didn't say anything, but Shirako and Vert could guess what was going on in his head. He had already lost one of his siblings in a crash, the last thing the boy needed was to lose the other one in a similar manner.

"Aw, dude, I'm sure Talia's fine." Shirako eventually said.

"How do you know?" Nolo demanded, a slight tremor in his voice. Shirako shrugged.

"It's basic physics really." He said. "TechTyte scraped against the wall for a decent chunk of time before crashing. Theoretically speaking, that much friction should have slowed her down enough to lower both her speed and momentum before crashing. Her car's probably wrecked, and she's probably injured, but I'm almost positive that Talia's not dead."

"I hope not," Nolo mumbled.

* * *

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	23. Chrome Realm (part 3)

**Chapter 23: Chrome Realm (part 3)**

"What're we going to do? What're we going to do?" Aurora kept on asking over and over, fear evident in her voice.

"We don't panic, for starters," Terra replied flatly, swerving to avoid the Drones that were chasing after her.

"But Talia's offline, and she never goes offline!" Aurora protested.

"We keep on going," Verity said firmly, a tinge of unhappiness in her voice. "We don't have time to backtrack, and even if we did there's no guarantee that we would run into her since we don't know if the track she took branched off again. As much as I hate to say it, we have no choice to keep on going."

"But what about Talia?" Gale wondered. "Shouldn't one of us at least try to attempt a rescue?"

"But she's probably dead," Lani said in a strained voice. "There's-"

"Talia's a fighter." Verity abruptly said, interrupting Lani's protests. "Every time I think she's given up or gone off and killed herself doing something ridiculously crazy, she always comes back with twice the willpower and something even crazier than her last idea. I won't believe she's dead, not until I see her stone cold body."

"But-"

"Talia will be fine." Once again, Verity interrupted Lani, getting the tiniest bit annoyed with the Hawaiian's pessimistic outlook. "You'll see."

Terra frowned as the Drones tried to ram her again, momentarily ignoring the conversation to focus on the robots. She pressed down on the gas, speeding towards what she knew was a very real, very solid wall. The Drones were flanking her at this point, and they too sped up in an attempt to ensure that their prey did not escape. Terra glanced behind her, then ahead at the wall. Taro's half-sister smirked before transferring her foot from the gas to the brakes, coming to an almost instant stop.

The girl shifted gears and used the rapidly fading momentum to pull off an almost perfect ninety-degree turn, before shifting gears once more and speeding off down the tunnel she was now facing.

The Drones were neither as skilled or as lucky as Terra had been. Unable to stop or turn in time, they smashed into the wall, meeting their demise in a trio of synchronized explosions that burned with a green fire. Terra glanced back at her handiwork and smirked before driving off.

"Nice one!" Aurora cheered as she heard the crashing sound over the radio, correctly deducing that the crash meant that several Drones had met their demise. Terra didn't bother acknowledging the compliment, instead choosing to speed off.

* * *

Talia bolted upright with a gasp, before groaning and clutching her head as a wave of dizziness and nausea assaulted her. Looking around, the Latina slowly registered that she was still in her car, and a violent wave of curses spilled from her mouth as she realized that she must have passed out from the crash. Her car's internal computer had shut off, though fortunately, the engine was still idling.

Hurriedly, Talia switched the computer back on, hoping and praying that she wasn't too late. Perhaps she had been out of it for several hours and was now trapped in this terrible place. There was a crackle of static that heralded the rebooting of the computer, barely audible over the girl's continued cursing.

"How much time's left?" Talia demanded, not knowing or caring if she gave the other's a heart attack after suddenly popping back into existence.

"Talia? Is that you?" Lani was so startled she almost fell over out of shock, while in the conference room Nolo let a sigh of relief escape him as he slumped back in his chair.

"No, it's Gelorum," Talia replied sarcastically. "Who do you think it is?"

"There's less than twenty minutes left," Verity reported. "What happened, we just heard a crashing sound and then nothing."

"A trio of Drones forced me into the wall," Talia answered after a few seconds of silence. "I must have hit my head and passed out for a few minutes."

"Aw, dude, are you alright?" Gale inquired before yelping as one of the EMP shots hit her truck, causing the girl to spin out.

Talia looked at her reflection in the rearview mirror. She had a nice large laceration that ran the length of her forehead, blood steadily trickling out of the wound. Not only was she still dizzy and nauseous, but she had a pounding headache to boot. And judging from the pain in her ribs, she had definitely bruised them, and there was always the possibility that a few of them were fractured or broken.

"It's just a scratch." Talia eventually said, lying clean through her teeth.

"It takes more than just a scratch to knock someone out, Talia," Verity said in an exasperated tone. "The last time you said that-"

"I was perfectly fine." Talia finished the African American's sentence, ignoring the fact that she had interrupted her co-leader.

"Um, correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't that after they took the casts off of your legs?" Aurora wondered.

"You aren't helping, Aurora," Talia muttered.

"What, it's the truth?' The bubbly blonde retorted before gleefully slamming on the brakes, causing one of the Drones to run into her. Aurora's car was fine since it was built to handle rough crashes. The Drone car, however, was not, and when Road Rage sped off it left behind a green and black vehicle with a severely crumpled front end.

"Whether or not she is fine doesn't matter." Terra eventually said, growing impatient with the debate. "There's no way that Talia can get proper medical attention in here. If she makes it out, I'm certain that Tezla has plenty of medical supplies to spare. If she doesn't, then a few injuries really aren't going to make a difference."

"Exactly," Talia said, thankful that someone agreed with her. "Sitting around here debating whether or not I'm fine won't help us win this race, nor will it help us stop the Drones. If I make it out, I make it out. If I don't, then I guess I take up washing mirrors as a hobby. Okay?"

Lani started to protest, but stopped herself, knowing that it was pointless. Talia breathed a quick sigh of relief before reaching out a hand to twist the keys, grinning as the powerful engine inside of TechTyte began to roar.

"Alright then." She said, a smirk appearing on her face as she reached up a hand to haphazardly wipe the blood out of her eyes. "Let's see how fast I can get through the rest of this place."

* * *

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	24. Chrome Realm (part 4)

**Chapter 24: Chrome Realm (part 4)**

Aurora whooped as she went over a massive jump, sailing over a river of liquid silver. It was like a molten mirror, casting her headlights about the surrounding area. The abrupt end to her chosen track hadn't bugged her in the slightest - instead the minor adrenaline junkie reveled in it.

She crashed down onto another segment of track, grinning as she crushed one of the robots that were chasing Terra. Taro's half-sister glanced behind her at the ruckus, smirking a bit as Aurora slammed into another Drone.

"Honestly, Terra, these things might as well be made out of wet tissue paper," Aurora said cheerily as she forced another one into the wall, smashing it to pieces. "Go on, rip them apart. Have a little fun once in a great while. It's not like these robots are going to kill you or anything."

"There's always the possibility," Terra muttered, a dour undertone to her voice, before swerving around another one of those silver orbs that littered the track and floated in the air. The Drone chasing her wasn't as quick, and soon his front end was squashed against the obstacle.

"Don't be so glum!" Aurora shot back. "Smile, laugh, at least pretend you're having a good time in here."

Verity and Talia let out twin sighs at Aurora's over the top, childish enthusiasm. They too had ended up on the same track, although the heavy tint on TechTyte's windows prevented Verity from seeing just how badly injured her co-leader was.

Gale was still by herself, although the Drones gave her a wide berth. The Japanese American was still blasting her music, and the sound waves appeared to be scrambling the Drone's sensors. They left her largely alone, and those that did try to go after her usually ended up crashing into the walls. Tezla's best guess was that the sound waves bouncing off of many surfaces were somehow confusing the Drones and that while it was handy in this particular Realm, it probably wouldn't have any use in other Realms where there was enough air to allow the sound waves to fade.

By now the girls had largely cut the light-hearted banter that they had tossed around at the beginning of the Realm. Now, they drove in silence. Talia was thankful for the fact that her cameras had not switched back on, as well as the tint on her windows, as they both masked how bad her injuries were. At this point, she had practically forgotten about her plans to win the Accelecharger and was now focused on not passing out. She was slightly dizzy, although her wounds had partially clotted and the gush of crimson had slowed to a steady trickle.

"I can see the end!" Verity announced as gradually the separate tracks funneled into one main one. The others looked around and realized that the girl was right. Although still trapped in the mirrored halls along with the dangers of their reflections, they could still make out the blue portal through the silvery haze.

Gradually the mirrors slowly started to fade out, and soon they vanished altogether, replaced with a black void. The silver spheres were still levitating about, in some ways making it more challenging as the curved surface warped the reflections. After the brightness of the mirrors, such a transition was startling; and though the chrome orbs cast the glow of their headlights around the Realm, there were no other solid surfaces nearby for it to land on.

Talia scowled as she noticed several of her teammates trying to catch a glimpse of her. She knew they really didn't believe her when she had told them earlier that she was fine. In all honesty, if one of the others tried that same stunt, Talia would have been the first to call them on it.

"So, we can see the end, and there's no one around, right?" Aurora said in a slightly cheery tone. "I guess that means that we have this one in the bag."

"Aw, dude, don't say that!" Gale pleaded. "You remember what happened in the Swamp Realm, right?"

"Eh, that's got to be a one time only kind of thing," Aurora replied with a shrug.

"Why don't you try telling that to those Drones over there that just so happen to have finally escaped that mirrored labyrinth and are currently preparing to attack us," Terra said darkly.

"Okay, I'll be right back!" And with that, Aurora spun her car around and went charging back towards the Drones, laughing maniacally as they began to fire at her. Fortunately, they had bad aim.

"As much as I don't like such crude methods, her idea isn't a bad one," Terra admitted after the group took a collective moment to contemplate whether or not the blonde was truly sane.

"Yeah, if we want to stop the Drones from winning, one of us is going to have to make a break for the portal while the rest of us deal with our new friends," Verity said, agreeing with her teammate.

"Yo, I think we all know who that lucky person gets to be." Gale finished. With that, all three of them glanced over at TechTyte, ignoring Aurora's cackling in the background as she shoved one of the Drones over the edge. Talia, sensing their eyes on her, scowled.

"How come I have to go for the portal?" She whined. Although winning an Accelecharger would certainly show Nolo that she was just as good of a racer as he was, Talia didn't want it to be handed to her on a silver platter. No, the girl wanted to earn it. "Don't forget, I owe the Drones for what they did to me and my car earlier. Do you know how long it's going to take me to fix the damage to the paint job alone, let alone the actual car itself?"

"There are two reasons," Verity replied calmly, gesturing for Terra and Gale to go help Aurora. "The first is that you're injured, and the rest of us are not. The second is that you're outnumbered and outvoted."

"But I'm a co-leader. Doesn't my vote count twice?" Talia asked hopefully.

"And so am I." Verity retorted. "That means that my vote automatically ties yours. And even if the other's votes only count as half - which, by the way, they don't - we still outvote you. Get moving. There's an Accelecharger with your name on it that's waiting for you."

"Ha-hah! Politics at their finest!" Aurora laughed. "C'mon, Verity, smashing these robots to bits is awesome!"

"Fine," Talia grumbled as she turned onto the final straightaway. No more reflections now, just three and a half miles of clear pavement. The girl activated her nitrox booster, and TechTyte shot ahead, purple flames licking the air in the vehicle's wake. Behind her, Verity had caught up with the rest of the girls, and together they were forcing the Drones to engage them rather than chase after Talia.

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	25. Chrome Realm (part 5)

**Chapter 25: Chrome Realm (part 5)**

"I absolutely hate it when she's logical like that," Talia grumbled under her breath as she sped towards the portal, the darkness blurring as her car accelerated towards two hundred miles an hour. "And it's even worse when she's right."

"Hey, I just don't want you passing out on us." Verity shot back, causing Talia to roll her eyes and mutter a few more things under her breath.

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Talia said in an icy tone. "That doesn't mean I have to like it."

Verity groaned and went back to crashing into Drones. Talia muted the radio for a moment before allowing a few curses to slip past her lips. Was it a juvenile reaction? Absolutely, but at that moment Talia really didn't care.

The Latina sighed and shook her head. That turned out to be a mistake since it made the dizziness increase. Groaning she lifted a hand to her head, unsurprised when it came back bloody. The girl made a mental note to clean her face off a bit before Lani saw her. Of course, if Talia passed out, she wouldn't have to worry about the Hawaiian's reaction.

Well, at least not for a while, anyway.

Deep down, Talia knew that Verity and the others were right. There was darkness creeping at the edges of her vision, and she was lightheaded from blood loss. There was a pounding pain in her head, one that hurt so much that is almost drowned out the pain in her ribs. Right now, the girl guessed that there was a pretty good chance that she was close to passing out.

Another delighted whoop from Aurora caused the Latina to glance back down the track. She could just catch glimpses of her four teammates dishing out some serious damage to the Drone forces. Aurora herself was busy shoving them off of the track left and right. Well, at least she seemed to be having a good time.

Talia really owed Verity and the others for forcing her to go through the portal first, much as she hated to admit it. She definitely needed to get medical attention as soon as what was humanly possible. And right now, that meant speeding down the last hundred or so feet of pavement.

The girl really was lucky that there weren't any extreme twists and turns left in the Realm. With her semi-addled mind, Talia probably would have driven clean over the edge of the track. That would not have been a pleasant way to go.

The blue wormhole was approaching, the symbol of the Realm flashing brightly in the center. It was only mere feet away. Talia closed the gap in seconds and shot through the air, hitting the portal dead on. With a flash of light, both the girl and the symbol were gone, safely out of the Realm.

* * *

As soon as his sister made tracks for the portal, Nolo stood up and left the room.

"Aw, dude, where are you going?" Shirako asked, eyes still glued to the screen that was displaying the camera feed from his sister's truck.

"Down to go check up on Talia," Nolo replied before vanishing out the door, taking the stairs two at a time in his haste. Shirako and Vert looked each other in mild shock.

"He does remember that Talia hates him, right?" Vert wondered. His teammate shrugged.

"Probably." He said after a moment of contemplation.

"So why is he going down there if there's a very good chance that Talia's going to pick a fight with him?" The blonde surfer demanded.

"Aw, dude, beats me." Shirako shrugged once more and went back to watching his sister decimate the Drones. "You and I both know he's stubborn like that."

"This is awesome! Man, if I get to do this in every Realm, I'm going to be one happy racer!"

Terra sighed as Aurora continued to chatter away. Why on earth did the blonde have to be so insufferably cheerful? Honestly, it was as if the girl was on a permanent sugar and caffeine-induced high. How could someone have that much energy all of the time?

"Oh man, oh man, if only Greenie could see me right now." Aurora cackled before smashing into another Drone. "Whoops!"

"If he saw you right now, he'd think you've gone mad," Terra muttered aloud.

"Who, me? Nah, I'm one hundred percent sane!" Aurora went back to wrecking Drones, laughing loudly. Gale merely bumped her music up another level to drown out the crazed giggling, while Terra let out a sigh.

"Look, I know you're having fun, but try and rein yourself in a little," Verity said as she blocked another Drone from trying to slip past the girls. "There are a lot of Drones in here, and if we get too distracted we're going to be run over."

"Aw man." Aurora pouted slightly but nonetheless dialed back a little on her fun. Gale glanced backward, only to wince as she caught the bright flash of light emanating from the portal as Talia escaped.

"Yo, Talia's made it out." She reported. "Think we should bail?"

"You only have five minutes left," Lani said. "You all need to get out of there as quickly as possible."

"Let's get out of here." Verity decided before spinning her car around and speeding off, activating the nitrox boosters in her vehicle to put some distance between herself and the Drones. The rest of the Metal Teku followed suit, and soon four distinct lines of purple flames were scorching the track. The Drones, having lost their chance to win the Accelecharger, only pursued the humans because they, too, were now trying to get out of the Realm.

Aurora was still cracking jokes as they rushed towards the portal, the four girls hitting it and soon entering the interdimensional tunnel that would take them back to the Acceledrome. As it turned out, Aurora was the only one still talking. Gale was lost in her music, while Terra retreated to her cold and stony demeanor. Only Verity's silence was out of character, born more out of worry than of fear.

The girl knew that her friend had been badly injured. The only question was how severe those injuries truly were.

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	26. Aftermath (part 1)

**Chapter 26: Aftermath (part 1)**

There was a brilliant flash of light, and then TechTyte came flying out of the portal and into the unofficial landing area in the Acceledrome. Screeching, the car came to a stop, the driver inside slumping back up against the seat as she tried to calm her pounding heart.

In the air next to her, a silver glow materialized, flaring outward before solidifying into a computer chip. Talia smirked before reaching out to grab it, clutching the Accelecharger tightly in her bloodstained fingers. Sure, this win didn't mean as much as it would have if she had raced a perfect race, but a win was still a win.

Now that the matter of the Realm had been settled, Talia turned her attention to more pressing matters. In this case, her chief concern was to seek medical attention, preferably sooner rather than later. A bit awkwardly she climbed out of TechTyte, scowling at the blood that was starting to soak into the seat and floor. She'd have a lot of cleaning to do later. That scowl was replaced with a slight groan as a wave of dizziness assaulted her senses, and the girl reached out to steady herself against her car.

It was at this moment that Nolo finished running down the stairs, only to come to a screeching halt as he caught sight of his bloodied younger sister. For one horrible, infinitely long moment he was drawn back to that terrible day several years ago when Talia had been hit by a drunk semi truck driver. Looking back on it now, she had been extremely lucky to survive.

"What on earth do you think you're doing?" He demanded as he darted over to his sister's side.

"Nothing that concerns you." Talia snapped, although her voice lacked some of the usual venom, and she stumbled a bit. Nolo caught her before she could fall, and gently sat her back down inside of her car. That was as far as he got before Talia punched him again, although the blow was much weaker than it normally should have been.

"Forget the fact that you hate me for a moment." Nolo pleaded. "You aren't in any shape to be up and walking. Just stay here and let me get Lani."

Before Talia could argue, he ran off, looking a bit as if a Drone was hot on his heels. Talia bit back a few curses - she didn't want his help - but acknowledged that right now there wasn't anything she could do about it. So, much as the Latina hated it, she merely sat there slumped up against her seat, bleeding rather profusely all over the upholstery, and did her best to try and stay awake and somewhat lucid.

"Oh for the love of racing, Talia, just what on earth do you consider a mere scratch to be?"

Huh. Apparently, in her slight daze, she had missed the rest of her teammates exiting the Realm. Verity was standing right in front of her, arms crossed in front of her chest and a look on her face that was equal parts irritation, frustration, and concern. Gale was peaking out from behind Terra, and looked absolutely sick to her stomach, while even Aurora had seemed to sober up a bit, so to speak.

"It's not as bad as it looks," Talia whined, her words slurring together a little bit. That fact seemed to wipe out any credibility her statement had. "You know head wounds bleed a lot."

"Not this much." Verity retorted, glancing over at Gale and Aurora. "You two go park your cars and then get Lani. Terra, go ask Tezla where I can get something to clean up all of this blood once Talia's been settled into the infirmary."

"Honestly, I'm fine." The Latina grouched as her teammates ran off to commence with their tasks. "There's nothing to worry about." She tried to stand, only for her legs to buckle. With a groan, she fell back into her seat.

"Okay, maybe I am a tiny bit light headed. So what? Big deal. I've been in worse crashes than that one." Talia sounded annoyed, or as annoyed as a half-conscious, not fully lucid person could sound at any rate.

"Stop trying to get up," Verity ordered firmly, breathing a sigh of relief as Lani pulled up in the makeshift ambulance. Nolo was in the passenger's seat, and he hurried over to join Talia and Verity while Lani pulled out a stretcher.

"Go away," Talia demanded, glaring at him as best she could. "I don't want your pity, nor do I need it."

"Oh, quit being so confrontational for once in your life," Verity grumbled quietly, allowing her frustration with her co-leader's attitude to bleed to the surface. Talia shot her a glare, only to let out a rather undignified yelp as Nolo carefully picked her up.

"Put me down!" The teenager shouted.

"And risk having you fall over and get another head injury? Not a chance." Nolo retorted as he placed her down on the stretcher, not really caring that he was getting blood all over his clothing. Right now, his sister was more important.

"Thank you, Nolo." Lani got to work securing the girl to make certain she wouldn't fall off. Talia was having a hard time staying awake, and eventually, it seemed as if her brain decided that now would be a good time to shut down for a while. Her eyes slipped closed, and she was out like a light. "Go get changed, you'll want to wash all that blood out as soon as possible."

With that, she finished securing her latest patient, loaded her up into the ambulance, and went speeding off towards the infirmary. Terra came back with the requested cleaning supplies, handing them off to Verity before asking if she wanted any help. The African American informed her that she would be okay, and the quiet Asian American soon retreated to the confines of her own room. Verity then got to work mopping up the quickly drying blood, grumbling something about how stubborn Talia was under her breath.

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	27. Aftermath (part 2)

**Chapter 27: Aftermath (part 2)**

Nolo was pacing back and forth in his room, no doubt wearing a line in the carpet. He had gone and changed out of his bloodstained clothing like Lani had suggested before making a beeline to the infirmary. Much to his annoyance, the Hawaiian had locked the door on him, probably to make certain he wouldn't disturb her patient.

He had waited outside the door for a while until Lani had poked her head out and told him in no uncertain terms that she was going to be busy with Talia for quite some time and that he needed to go someplace else. Needless to say, the Latino had not been that happy to hear about that, but nonetheless, he had retreated to his room and given the girl some peace.

Lani could care less about the fact that Nolo was irritated with her. She was much more concerned with Talia. That girl was way too stubborn for her own good, continuing on when she was injured that badly. Although Lani supposed, the younger Pasero really didn't have any choice in the matter.

The Hawaiian had already set up an IV drip and had started a blood transfusion to try and replace all of the blood that the girl had already lost. Thankfully the wounds had largely clotted by this point, so there wasn't a lot of the crimson substance leaking out of her body anymore, although there was a great deal of it drying on her face and neck.

That would have to be dealt with later, however, as right now the fact that the girl appeared to be having trouble breathing was the most pressing concern. Lani's guess was that she had fractured some ribs, possibly some broken. With a bit of difficulty, she lugged a cart bearing a small x-ray unit over to Talia's bedside. While it may have been portable, that didn't mean it wasn't heavy.

The images, once developed, showed exactly what Lani had predicted. Her fifth and sixth ribs were fractured, although they, fortunately, had not been broken clean through. A brace similar to the one that Tezla wore was fitted over the Hawaiian's unconscious patient to stabilize them for the time being. Lani then turned to the laceration that was currently oozing blood all over Talia's face. The area was cleaned and disinfected before the cut itself was stitched shut and a bandage was placed over it. After that, it was just a matter of taking care of the other, more minor wounds and making a note to see if the girl had a concussion when she woke up.

All things considered, it only took the girl about an hour and a half to take care of everything. Soon enough Lani found herself walking out of the infirmary and towards the dorm rooms. Unfortunately for her, she had to pass through the Teku garage. Nolo was by her side the instant he saw the Hawaiian walk in.

"How is she?" He demanded, worry lacing his voice and a hint of concern in his eyes. Lani merely sighed.

"You should be in bed." She replied.

"Not until I know how Talia is doing." The Latino retorted. "Besides, I'm not tired."

"Your sister is going to be fine." Lani figured that she should start out with the good news first. "She had some fractured ribs, lost a lot of blood, and most likely has a concussion but there aren't any fatal injuries. She's sleeping right now, and if you go and disturb her I will personally see to it that Tezla doesn't let you race for at least a month. Understand?"

Nolo flinched slightly, as he had in fact been planning on going to see his sister the moment that the infirmary door was unlocked. But the last thing he wanted to do was to cross Lani, even without the threat of not being allowed to race. Sure, he grumbled a bit in Spanish under his breath but assured Lani that he wasn't going to go and wake one of the co-leaders of the Metal Teku up.

Normally Lani wouldn't have believed him, but given how concerned Nolo was over Talia's well being she decided that he probably had enough common sense to listen to her. Bidding the leader of the Teku goodnight she soon retreated to her room.

Nolo was left alone in the garage, busily working on his car and still trying to resist the urge to go and check up on Talia. The teen was just about to turn his music on to try and drown out the thought of sneaking down to the infirmary when footsteps echoed in the air. For a moment he was excited, hoping that maybe it was his sister, but to his disappointment, it was Verity that entered the garage.

"Looks like I wasn't the only one that couldn't sleep, huh?" She muttered aloud, more to herself than to Nolo. "So, do you know how Talia is doing or is Lani still working on her?"

"Lani just finished up maybe ten minutes ago," Nolo admitted as he abandoned the speakers and went back to working on Synkro's engine. "She said that Talia's got a few broken ribs and that she might have gotten a concussion, but other than that and a lot of blood loss she's in pretty good shape considering the crash she was in."

"That's a relief." Verity let out a sigh at his words. "And how are you doing?"

"Huh?" Her question was met with a blank stare, causing Verity to sigh once more and roll her eyes.

"I asked about how are you doing." The African American repeated herself. "And don't say that you're doing fine, because from what I heard from Vert and Shirako, coupled with what I saw of you earlier, you're not doing alright."

"I don't know." It was an honest answer. "It was terrifying to watch Talia get into that crash and not be there to help her. I was worried that I was going to lose her, just like I lost Tone when he was racing your brother. Maybe it reminded me of when she got hit by that drunk driving a semi-trailer a few years back. I honestly don't know."

"The semi incident was what I thought about when I heard that crash, too," Verity admitted quietly. Nolo frowned, thinking back to that terrible day. He and Tone had come back to visit their mother and sister, the first time they had been back home ever since they had moved out west. Well, it had been the first time for Nolo - Tone had gone back a few times previously, but every time something came up that forced Nolo to stay behind.

They had been sitting on the steps of their house, waiting for someone to get home since the locks had been changed and their key wouldn't work anymore. It had grown late, really late, and Nolo had started to doze off when a girl came running around the corner before being tackled by a boy.

At the time he didn't recognize the rough and tumble Latina as his sister, having only seen Talia when she acted more like a girly girl than anything else. The two newcomers had gotten into an argument - the boy wanted a race, the girl had countered that she couldn't race since her car had been totaled in a crash and that the boy should be fully aware of that considering that he had been there when it had happened. That seemed to strike a nerve with the boy, and he punched her in the face before pulling out a knife.

That was as far as the situation had escalated before Tone had intervened, forcing the boy to drop the knife before coldly ordering him to leave and leave the girl alone. The boy ran off after making a few threats, and then suddenly the girl had started yelling at Tone, not at all thankful for his help. Tone had tried to reason with her, saying that he couldn't just sit there and not help.

"Why do you care? You left, remember? You abandoned me, Tone, because you were sick of me. Isn't that right? So why do you care now?"

Those had been the words that the girl had angrily yelled at his older brother, words that at first made Nolo think that this was some sort of crazy ex-girlfriend of his older brother. Tone had asked where she was going as the girl stalked off, causing her to snap once more at him.

"I don't have to answer to you, Tone!" You're not my older brother anymore! I own no allegiance to you, or to Nolo. As far as I'm concerned, neither of you are my brothers."

"But aren't we family?" Tone had pleaded with her as she continued to leave.

"I have no family." The girl, who by now Nolo had realized was Talia herself, had hissed in response before vanishing into the night. Her voice had a bitter taint to it, and she appeared downright furious with them both. Nolo had turned towards his sorrowful looking older brother, ready to grill him with questions when a loud horn blared through the night. It petered off into a loud crash, followed by a bloodcurdling scream that had shaken both Tone and Nolo to their very cores. No words needed to be exchanged, as one the two had run towards the sound, only to find an overturned semi-trailer.

Tone had made a beeline for a lump on the ground, yelling at Nolo to go check on the driver. The younger Pasero brother had listened to his sibling without question. Much to his disgust, he found the driver perfectly fine, sitting in his seat with nary an injury to be seen. He had a goofy smile on his face and reeked of cheap liquor, singing a song about some sort of truck that had ducked - or something similar to that, given the passage of time Nolo couldn't recall exactly what the song had been about - in a drunken, sing-songy voice.

When he went to report to Tone, he found to his horror and shock that it had been Talia that had gotten hit. She was in horrible shape, limbs all askew in unnatural directions and a few bones poking out. They gleamed white among the copious amounts of blood that was seeping out of her body through the many cuts she had sustained, getting all over the pavement and both her and Tone. Unfortunately for Talia, she had managed to stay awake thus far and was obviously in a lot of pain if the listless expression on her face was anything to judge by.

When she realized that it was Nolo and Tone that had come to her aid she had struggled to get away, demanding answers as to how they could possibly care about her if they had left. She was crying at that point, and soon after passed out.

To make a long story short, though in truth those few awful weeks the two brothers were in town were nothing but a blur in the Latino's memories, Talia hadn't woken up before they left. A coma, the doctors said, caused by her injuries. Three broken ribs, a sucking chest wound, shattered arms and a leg, what was most likely a traumatic brain injury...those were the ones they had rattled off before noticing the look on Nolo's face. The fact that she had woken up without any major mental health problems, other than her amnesia, and that Talia had managed to largely recover from the crash, was a miracle.

"Nolo!"

Hearing his name being called, the teen shook his head and looked over at Verity.

"Are you okay? You kind of zoned out for a few moments there." She said, looking at him in concern. "Are you sure that you don't need to go get some sleep or something?"

"I'm fine." He muttered in response, fooling neither of them. "I was just thinking."

"Well, if that's the case then I'm going to go work on my car," Verity replied, stifling a yawn. It was clear that Nolo wasn't the only one that was ignoring the siren call of sleep. "You know where to find me if you want to talk some more."

"Yeah, sure." Nolo's reply was half-hearted, and he quickly went back to work on his vehicle. Like he was ever going to go and spill his guts any more than he already had to anyone; especially the sister of his older brother's murderer.

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	28. Preparations

**Chapter 28: Preparations**

Several days passed, days that were largely uneventful. Talia had woken up two days after the Chrome Realm, largely lucid and aware of her surroundings. The injuries were still paining her if the torrent of curses that had spewed out of her lips when she woke up each morning was anything to judge by. As Lani suspected the girl did have a concussion, meaning that she spent most of her time napping or lying in a darkened room. She was bored, but Lani didn't want to tire the girl out while she was healing. And, like most things when it came to injuries, what Lani said happened, whether the patient liked it or not.

Most of the drivers had fixed their cars, and the Metal Teku had worked on getting TechTyte back into working order. Terra was constantly looking over her vehicle, as the engine was starting to sound a bit strange. Whenever she examined it, however, everything appeared to be fine, but the girl could not shake the nagging sense that something was wrong with her vehicle.

Of all the drivers, Taro and Karma were the only ones that were still working on repairs. The broken axle that Taro had sustained in the Swamp Realm was much worse than he had originally thought, and there was some underlying structural damage that made it so that the entire frame of his car had to be replaced. He was almost done, but still had several hours worth of work ahead of him. Karma, on the other hand, had discovered that her crash right before the Swamp Realm had damaged some of the more delicate internal workings of Chicane, and her entire computer system had to be reprogrammed. They were time-consuming repairs, but her car was technically in a driveable condition in case Tezla decided to send her into one of the Realms.

Shirako was helping her when he could, but the skinny Asian was largely splitting his time between helping out everyone on his team with their repairs, fixing his own vehicle, and spending some quality family time with Gale. That meant that the pair usually brainstormed new ways to annoy Pork Chop and then execute said plans.

By far the most impressive thing they had done was completely hack into Jack Hammar and reprogram the computer to blare some of their favorite electronic dance music whenever the vehicle was turned on, and then disabled the Metal Maniac's ability to change the music, turn the music off, or reprogram the computer. So far Pork Chop had avoided driving for a week and counting.

Aurora, too, was busy spending time with her cousin. Or, as the blonde liked to phrase it, she was helping him. Vert disagreed with that statement quite heartily. Aurora's idea of helping appeared to be pulling various pranks on both the surfer and his car that involved green things or shamrocks in some way, shape, or form. Her favorite thing to do at the moment was to completely cover Power Rage with green sticky notes that had shamrocks drawn on it, before sticking a pot of gold and a fake rainbow on the hood. Needless to say, most days Vert was in a foul mood at breakfast.

Things were slowly getting back to normal by the time a full week had passed since the end of the Chrome Realm. The drivers were grouped at their respective tables eating breakfast, some more awake than others. Vert was glowering at his bowl of cereal, fuming over the fact that Aurora had somehow managed to cover the entire interior of his car with fuzzy green pompoms. Fortunately, they hadn't been permanently attached - the girl thankfully wasn't that cruel - but he was getting rather sick of all of the pranks he had been subjected too. Coincidentally, Aurora looked absolutely giddy with the success of her exploits the previous night.

Suddenly the klaxons began to wail again, causing more than one racer to jump. Eventually, the teams sat up straighter, both of the Takamoto siblings pulling one of the speakers in their headphones away from their heads, annoyed looks decorating their faces as the noise disrupted their tunes.

"The following drivers will enter the Realm," Tezla announced over the public address system. "Shirako Takamoto, Karma Eiss, Deezel Riggs-"

"It's Pork Chop!" Monkey snapped, slightly annoyed over the fact that Teza seemed to refuse to call the man by his chosen nickname, much as the old scientist refused to call Monkey by anything other than his given name. A few of the drivers glared at him, while Karma groaned. She really didn't want to drive in a Realm when her car wasn't in perfect condition, but Tezla appeared to not be leaving her any choice.

"-Kitano, Gale Takamoto, Tork Maddox, Kurt Wylde, Mark Wylde, and Aurora Wheeler."

"Which Kitano?" Aurora inquired. It was a valid question since Monkey's little outburst had covered up that part of the announcement.

"Since I don't have a working car at the moment, I assume he means you," Taro replied, directing his words at Terra. The younger Kitano rose silently with a scowl before walking out of the room. The chosen drivers followed the girl out of the cafeteria, running for their cars to prepare them for the race.

"Yo bro, come here a second!" Gale called out, causing Shirako to run over to her. He pulled his headphones off for a brief moment to allow Gale to whisper something to him in Japanese. Both brother and sister looked over into the Metal Maniac's garage, where they could see Pork Chop climb into his vehicle and thank his lucky stars that they had taken pity on him and undid their previous work on his vehicle. Loud rock began to blare throughout the Acceledrome, causing both of the Takamotos to flinch as it assaulted their ears. Mischievous grins flashed across their faces briefly before the pair went back to getting ready for the Realm, climbing into Bassline and Bass Vortex as if nothing was wrong.

Pork Chop hadn't noticed the looks directed his way, too busy celebrating the fact that he no longer had to listen to his car pumping out that electronic and techno music that the Takamotos seemed to be addicted to. Kurt, however, had noticed the rather devious facial expressions that had briefly adorned the faces of both Shirako and Gale. The man smirked, recalling the last time Shirako had gotten that look in his eye. That had ended in Pork Chop almost trashing Bassline. To put it mildly, the burly southerner had been rather ticked off, to say the least. The Teku, on the other hand, had managed to have a good laugh over that event, and an even bigger one over the video of the incident that Shirako had managed to tape.

Despite the fact that they were on rival racing teams, Kurt couldn't help but feel the tiniest bit sorry for the redhead. Whatever the Takamotos had planned, it had to mean bad news for Pork Chop, especially since they had taken pity on him and removed their tampering with his car. But Kurt didn't feel that much pity for Pork Chop, he was too busy starting up his car. The man gunned his engines a few times, the rumbles of the cars driven by the other occupants of the Acceledrome answering his a few moments later.

Finally, the rings of the Wheel came into alignment with each other, the symbol of the chosen Realm starting to glow. There was a brilliant flash that momentarily blinded everyone looking in that direction, and the crackling blue portal appeared.

"Alright! Let's go!" Aurora cheered before speeding onto the track, accelerating towards three hundred miles an hour. Terra, much more reserved than her teammate, was right behind her, followed closely by the Takamotos and Pork Chop. Kurt and Wylde jostled each other as they both tried to get ahead of their sibling, until finally, Wylde shoved Battle Spec out of the way to take the sixth slot, leaving Kurt to be resigned to seventh place. Tork was next in line, and then last but certainly not least was Karma. The portal was coming up, the cars going faster and faster as they neared the proper speed to start the dimensional jump. Aurora grinned as she felt the first trickle of pure adrenaline flowing through her veins, setting her heart racing with excitement.

"This is going to be epic." She proclaimed before one after another the sailed off the jump and let the portal swallow them up.

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